Lydia Chemu: Eldoret Woman Claims Abuse, Death Threats From Husband in Viral Call for Help Video

Kenyans have called on the police to act swiftly after Eldoret woman Lydia Chemu released a tearful video alleging years of brutal abuse.

The woman who bore injuries and claimed she missed a tooth also alleged chilling death threats from her husband.

In the emotional video, Chemu, a mother of young children, showed visible injuries she claimed were inflicted in recent attacks.

Her account has drawn an outpouring of concern online, with many Kenyans urging the authorities to arrest the man before it is too late.

Chemu said her marriage had been a cycle of violence for the past four years.

She showed what she says are fresh marks on her neck from strangulation, along with scars on her ears and head. She also said she has lost teeth in previous beatings.

She claimed that the abuse continued throughout her pregnancies and that her husband beat her even when her baby was only a week old.

She said it reached a point where she felt she had come to the end, describing attacks in which her attacker slammed her against walls, kicked her, and hit her on the head.

In videos shared on social media, a badly beaten Chemu was seen as she and her alleged abuser in a ditch after a fight.

She noted that she had broken up with her abuser, who was seen recording her as he showed how her face was.

Chemu said that her family was evicted from their Nairobi home in June over rent arrears, adding that neighbours had also complained about the constant violence.

She said she had to care for her two-year-old and six-month-old without a home, moving from one temporary accommodation to another.

Chemu noted she relied on her mother and friends, and later stayed in a single room in Rongai.

After yet another attack, she says, she fled to Eldoret to keep her children safe.

Chemu said her husband later pleaded for forgiveness and promised to change. With no job and no steady income, and under pressure to provide for her children, she took him back in August.

"I always go back because of the children. I'm not financially stable," she said.

The peace did not last, she says. Chemu alleges the violence resumed shortly afterwards, and that some of the recent assaults were recorded by onlookers.

She believes CCTV footage from the venue where she was last attacked, an entertainment joint in Eldoret, could back up her account.

Chemu says she has text messages in which her husband threatens her life. In one, she alleges, he warned that her body would never be found.

"He has been threatening me with death a lot. He says he will stab me, that even my body will not be found," she said.

She also alleges he has threatened to harm their children.

Chemu said that she had repeatedly sought help from the police, including in Rongai, but without success. "At the end, I don't get the help," she said.

Her video has since prompted Kenyans to ask why the case has not been acted on, and to call on the police to arrest the man and protect her and the children.

Attempts to reach, locate or communicate to the alleged husband proved futile as his offline and social media contacts were not available at the time of publishing.