Two women who were allegedly attacked during the violence that rocked Linda Mwananchi rallies in Homa Bay County/SCREENGRAB
Suba South MP Millie Odhiambo has condemned the violence meted out against members of the Linda Mwananchi brigade during their tour of Homa Bay County on Sunday, saying she was left “shaking in rage” after meeting one of the victims.
Odhiambo said she met two women who were affected by the violence, including a woman politician who had been discharged from a hospital in Kisumu and was travelling to Mombasa.
The MP said the woman, whom she described as an aspiring Woman Representative in a coastal county, was still in severe pain and using a wheelchair when they met.
“My first tribe is woman,” Odhiambo said in a statement. “I watched this woman speak in the Linda Mwananchi Forum in Sindo in Homa Bay. She said she is an aspiring Woman Representative in a Coastal County, I think Kwale.”
Odhiambo said she had been informed about the woman’s ordeal and deliberately sought to meet her to hear her account of what happened during the violence.
“I was told of her ordeal. I purposed to and did meet her and another woman victim of violence yesterday when she was en route to Mombasa after being discharged from a hospital in Kisumu,” she said.
“She was in a wheelchair. She was still in extreme pain.”
According to Odhiambo, the woman gave her a harrowing account of the attack and how narrowly she escaped death.
“…She gave a harrowing account of her ordeal and how close she came to death,” Odhiambo said.
The MP claimed the woman was seriously injured and that blood was flowing from her head when a man who had allegedly participated in an earlier beating approached her with a panga.
“As blood was oozing from her head uncontrollably, a ‘young man’ who was part of the earlier beatings raised his panga to finish her off.”
Odhiambo said the situation changed after another woman who knew the man intervened and pleaded with him not to kill the injured woman.
According to the MP, the man later apologised and claimed he had participated in the violence because he was unemployed and had allegedly been paid.
“The young man apologised and said he only did that because he is jobless and they were given money and instructed to kill…,” she said.
Odhiambo said the man subsequently helped the injured woman, hiding her in a toilet before helping her access first aid and eventually securing an ambulance to take her to hospital.
“He even provided another ‘young man’ to protect her,” she said.
Beyond the individual account, the Suba South MP said women appeared to have been specifically targeted during the violence, with some allegedly losing their security personnel and others reportedly being sexually assaulted.
“This lady and other women who spoke were specifically targeted,” Odhiambo said.
“One lost her security. Some women were reportedly raped.”
Odhiambo’s account has also drawn attention to concerns over the safety of women participating in political activities, particularly amid allegations of violence and intimidation during the Homa Bay incident.