21-year-old woman attacked, raped and left for dead in Nyandarua

A 21-year-old woman was on Thursday attacked, raped, and left for dead at Ol-Kalou’s Huruma estate in Nyandarua County.

The woman is reported to have been accosted by criminals brandishing machetes late in the night as she went to visit her aunt.

They allegedly assaulted the helpless woman before raping her and later ransacked her bag, then dragged her into a thicket at a neglected plot.

The victim was rescued by a group of women who were informed of the incident and rushed her to JM Kariuki Memorial Hospital, where she is recuperating.

Women's groups in Ol-Kalou town have protested the incident and called on security agencies to heighten patrols in order to tackle criminals operating during the night.

They also want the County Government of Nyandarua to erect security lights along the streets and in the estates to weed out criminals who take advantage of the darkness to terrorise innocent residents.

Betty Muchina, a girls’ rights crusader, noted that cases of gender-based violence (GBV) and femicide were on the rise in the area and called for concerted efforts by all stakeholders to combat them.

“We are protesting a GBV attack against one of us on Thursday night. The woman was raped, attacked with a panga and left to die. Such cases have become very rampant in the area. In the last month, a Grade Five pupil was defiled in Kinangop, killed and dumped in a dam. Yesterday another Form 3 student was stabbed in Weru and another child was raped in Huruma yesterday,” she noted.

In a span of two weeks, Muchina says at least five such cases have been reported, but no arrest has been made yet.

Nyandarua Woman Representative Faith Gitau has condemned the attack, claiming such cases have been on the rise in the region.