A Kenyan woman on Tuesday said she wants her husband jailed for life for chopping off her hands with a machete because she allegedly could not bear him children.
Stephen Ngila has been charged with attempted murder after the attack on Monday last week in Machakos, southeast of the capital, Nairobi.
His wife, Jackline Mwende Ngila, said that tests done four years into their marriage showed that her husband is the one with reproductive issues.
She said their relationship deteriorated after the tests, which were done three years ago, and that her husband did not show up for treatment as doctors prescribed.
“We bought a plot and built a house which all along we wanted to see our children play in the compound,” she said.
“If Ngila never wanted my daughter, why did he not return her?” her father, Samuel Munyoki, asked.
Human rights groups have condemned the attack.
The government needs to take a zero-tolerance stance on protecting the rights of women and girls, Naitore Nyamu of the organization Equality Now said.
“This is a particularly shocking case for Kenya,” Nyamu said.
“We can’t afford to let perpetrators act with impunity, which has sometimes been the case here in years gone by,” she added.
Despite the attack, Mwende Ngila’s advice to married people is to “persevere, despite challenges. It is not all cases that end like mine.”
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