Police in Murang’a have launched a manhunt for a man who burnt a married and heavily pregnant woman with a stove because she rejected his romantic overtures.
A tenant at an apartment block in Kanorero trading centre, Kangema sub-county said the suspect had repeatedly made advances at the woman while knowing that she lived with another man in the same building.
“It is like an obsession. The suspect had been warned repeatedly by the woman’s husband … The woman had publicly told him off but he was unrelenting. It was an incident that started a month ago,” Alvaro King’ori said.
County Commissioner Karuku Ngumo confirmed the Saturday incident saying it was being treated as a “serious incident of gender-based violence”.
Ngumo said such cruelty will not go unpunished “especially when we are speaking of a victim who is heavily pregnant”.
The commissioner said the woman moved to the town in 2020 and worked as a barmaid before quitting and settling down with the man in 2021.
“The assailant is said to have followed the woman to the rental plot and taken a room. He started the passes at the woman which have now ended in this heinous assault,” he said.
Kangema police boss Phillip Wambugu added that the suspect escaped and the woman was admitted to Kangema Level Four Hospital in critical condition.
“The report is that the suspect ambushed the woman as she was coming out of the compound’s pit latrine and threw a burning stove on her. She has burns on her abdomen, thighs and hands,” he said.
