A woman and her two children who had been undergoing domestic abuse at the hands of her husband in Nairobi's Umoja estate have been rescued.
The rescue followed the intervention of Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) who obtained a court order on Thursday to protect the woman and her children from the abuse.
A statement by FIDA Executive Director Anne Ireri said the woman and her children had been locked in their house by the man of the house said to be a National Intelligence Services officer.
"The NIS officer has been assaulting, beating, physically inflicting pain and causing bodily harm to the woman," Ireri said.
She said FIDA obtained the court order to free the three through a petition filed jointly with the survivor’s sister.
Following FIDA-Kenya’s intervention, the survivor and her children have been rescued as the court directed the Officer Commanding Buruburu Police Station to visit the scene, break into or open up the door and rescue the woman and children," Ireri said.
The Court further issued an interim order restraining the the NIS officer or anyone acting on his behalf to from going closer or nearer the survivor and or her children.
According to the law, any acts that result in the violation of the right to life, the right to bodily integrity and autonomy, the right to security of the person, the right to liberty or any cruel and inhuman and degrading treatment is punishable by law.
Since the advent of Covid-19 in March 2020, the government reported a hike in domestic violence cases with women and children as majority of the victims.
The government attributed most of the cases to job losses and increased confinement occasioned by isolation.
In February this year, FIDA released a report that indicated that there was an increase in the number of Gender-based violence cases between January 1 and 31, 2022.
The report released on February 10 said Gender-based violence cases reported on FIDA's toll-free line were over 176, up from 161 reported in December 2021.
The report said child custody and child maintenance cases was also rose to a new high of 80 cases during the period under review.
