Claire Ochieng before the attack. /Courtesy
Twenty-five-year-old Claire Ochieng has opened up about the series of events that led to an acid attack in February, leaving her with severe injuries to her face, chest and arms.
Claire said the attack stemmed from her decision to end a four-year relationship with her ex-lover, an NIS officer who allegedly refused to let her go.
In an interview with Citizen TV, she recounted how the man initially tried to win her back through cash inducements before allegedly escalating to physical attacks that culminated in her being doused with sulphuric acid on February 17, 2026.
"Me quitting the relationship didn't sit well with him at that time so he kept coming, making efforts on me going back to him and all that but I refused," she said.
Determined to move on, Claire said she relocated from Umoja Estate shortly after ending the relationship in April 2025.
By October that year, she said the man appeared to have realised there was little he could do to salvage the relationship.
According to Claire, he then demanded that she refund more than Sh300,000 he had spent on her during their relationship and return every item he had bought her, including a phone, clothes, shoes and glasses.
She further claimed that he demanded she resign from her job because he had helped her secure the position.
"This is when things escalated. I told him let's wait for a few more time, when everything pans out well, I will hand over your cash."
Instead, Claire said, he presented her with another option — if she reconciles with him she wouldn't need to pay back a penny. She refused.
"So he kept tracking me." She said that in November 2025, while she was in Mombasa, her former lover texted her, saying he wanted to send her money for safekeeping.
Claire said she declined and advised him to get a separate line and keep the money in a mobile money wallet if his bank account could not hold the amount, which she estimated at about half a million shillings.
He sent the money anyway.
"The following day I called him and scolded him. I told him you can't be doing this. Even if you want to seem good to me, then definitely money can't buy me and if you sure you really want to keep this money, then the bank is the safest place, so reverse the money."
In January, Claire claimed the ex-lover made another attempt to persuade her to reconcile by offering to buy her an iPhone Pro Max.
She declined, saying she would rather remain single than date for money.
"So I told him take this phone, use it for your own good but as for me I will get my own phone at a time I will desire."
According to Claire, the February 17 acid attack came after seven previous physical attacks, three of which allegedly involved acid.
She said the incidents included an assault in Mombasa, another in Migori and another at her workplace in Nairobi.
Of the seven incidents, only three were reported to the police.
"He wanted me to resign from work because he connected me. 'If you're done with the relationship, you're done with everything'," she recalled him saying.
Claire said one of the acid attacks occurred at a bus station in February. She also claimed she was knocked down by a motorcycle the same month and was at one point threatened with a gun.
The most serious attack, however, occurred on February 17, 2026, at around 4pm as she walked home with a female colleague along Ngong Road.
"We had not evcen covered a long distance, the next thing is something is on my face. I asked my colleague for water and poured on my face. My clothes were melting. I started screaming. People came with water on a basin and poured on me."
Claire, who is currently receiving treatment at Kenyatta National Hospital, dismissed the allegatons that her ex-lover felt betrayed because he had paid her full college schools fees before she demped him.
She said she was a government-sponsored student and her family met the full balance required.
Her ex-lover, who remains the key suspect in planning the attacks, faces charges in court.
The man accused of pouring the corrosive liquid on her is also in custody, while police continue searching for the boda boda rider who allegedly transported him to the scene of the attack.
