Disturbing video of man repeatedly assaulting his girlfriend angers Kenyans online

A distressing undated video of a man captured on camera repeatedly assaulting his alleged girlfriend as his male friend looks on has unsettled Kenyans on X (formerly Twitter), with many calling for the arrest of the perpetrator.

In the video seen by Citizen Digital, the dreadlocked man is seen having a brief argument with his girlfriend, who is seated across him, before standing up and proceeding to slap her repeatedly as she shows no resistance whatsoever.

As his anger escalates, and while his girlfriend attempts to calm the situation, he goes on overdrive - increasing the potency of his slaps, this time, even backhanding her.

In the rather grainy video, the man, who is now towering over his hapless girlfriend, is heard yelling, "Leave here, Leave here! Toka hapa!"

As she attempts to explain herself out and calm him down, the man increases the intensity of his slaps, repeating, "Leave this place!"

Towards the end of the video, the woman, who is still seated amid a torrent of slaps, is heard repeating the words, "I've been jealous..."

While it has not been authoritatively established where and when the altercation happened or what caused it, Kenyans on X poured their wrath on the man and his male friend who they accuse of abetting the violence by choosing not to intervene.

The video, which was first shared by Human Rights enthusiast Alvin Ang'ienda, has already racked up over 700K+ views, with many people in the comment section castigating the man for the brutal violence meted on his lover.

Lawyer Maxwell Wafula wrote, "That guy is a lawyer? I'm disappointed. I thought lawyers were supposed to untangle messes, not jump into the spaghetti bowl!" 

"You ever beat my sister like that, I'll show up for a friendly conversation you won't forget!"

Njeri wa Migwi, founder of the Usikimye organization, also expressed her outrage, saying, "That horrific silent onlooker action is called enabling behaviour. You never call out or stop your friends." 

"Imagine being so comfortable being complicit to violence being committed around you. I sincerely hope that woman finds the help she needs to walk away... "

Yet another user wrote, "Pretty sure this is not an isolated incident. The lady probably goes through worse indoors!"

One X user, however, appeared to ask the public to let the couple independently solve their own mess, saying that it was tough to intervene.

"Mambo ya watu wawili ni ngumu maze ju im guessing this is something he used to doing. I believe this was not the first time!"

As of December 2022, government statistics from the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS) indicated that over 40 percent of Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual intimate partner violence in their lifetime.