An 80-year-old woman in Murang’a died after she was sexually attacked with sticks and burned with acid.
Outraged Kihumbu-ini villagers in Gatanga subcounty are demanding swift police action.
They claimed Lydia Chege was often assaulted by a woman relative who over the years made her life miserable.
On Saturday night, Chege was picked up from her house, dragged to a coffee farm where she was stripped and her private parts mutilated. She was found writhing in pain the following day at 6am.
“She was bleeding profusely but was able to call out names,” Racheal Wanjiru said.
She said she was alerted of Chege’s assault by another neighbour.
“Her body was only covered with a leso,” Wanjiru said. The granny was dressed and taken to Thika Level 5 Hospital where she died on Monday.
MOBILISED YOUTH
Villagers said her house was often broken into and vandalised. “Only last year, we mobilised youths to repair her door after it was broken,” a neighbour said.
Another neighbour said Chege had called him to instal a tank and gutters but they were destroyed after the tank was filled with water.
They blamed her tribulation to the female relative, who was taken away by the police. Residents wanted to lynch her.
Gatanga police boss Beatrice Muraguri cautioned the villagers against taking the law into their hands. She said they risked being arrested.
Stephen Ng’ang’a said villagers feared attacks on elderly women who live alone.
“We want the police to do investigations and establish who the attackers are and their motives,” Ng’ang’a said. He urged villagers to wait for police to take action.
Muraguri said the police recorded Chege’s statement before she died.
She said Chege told the officers that a man dragged her from her house into her farm late at night and cut her private parts.
DOMESTIC WRANGLE
“We’re waiting for the postmortem to establish the cause of her death and ascertain whether acid was poured on her body,” Muraguri said.
She urged those with information on the attack to help with investigations.
“So far, nobody has come out with any information,” she said.
She said the police were investigating the motives of the attacks.