What would have been the good news of finding a missing woman for a family, turned into horror when the family was informed of the mother's whereabouts in a viral video of a restaurant staff whipping her mercilessly.
On Monday, March 17, the victim's niece, Anastasia Mueni, narrated to NTV that Margaret Makau had gone missing on Friday, March 13, only for the family to be alerted after a clip of her being battered surfaced online.
There was a wide outcry on Sunday, March 15, when the clip showed a young man whipping the elderly woman, that the family says is mentally unwell, at a hotel in Kangundo for allegedly failing to pay for the food she had consumed.
The boy, who was confirmed to be an employee of the hotel, repeatedly whipped the woman up before dragging her through the floor out of the establishment.
"Margaret disappeared from home since Friday and for a while, she had been suffering from a mental problem. When she vanished, other family members called me because I was the one closest to her. I started looking for her but in vain.
"Finally, her older brother came over and was called by people from everywhere that there was a clip doing rounds on Facebook that there was a mother in Kangundo and it was her," she narrated.
"We left immediately for Kangundo but missed her when we searched police stations. We were told that she had been taken to a hospital where we found her," she added.
Upon inquiry at the hospital, the management told them that the woman had been admitted at the facility on Sunday and had sustained some injuries.
"The management told us that the mother had been brutally beaten up and sustained serious injuries. That was when we asked if there was a law in Kenya, the person responsible should be arrested because, first, she was mentally unwell and had physical problems.
"Even if she had eaten their foodstuff, the person should have inquired about the woman's problem before deciding to beat her... Why did he beat her up in that manner? He should have considered that the woman was his mother's agemate," she continued.
The management of the hotel condemned the incident disclosing that the responsible person was arrested shortly after.
The restaurant management further appealed to the police to hasten investigations into the incident claiming that they believed their competitors were after the downfall of their business.
"The woman was in front of the hotel for a better part of Saturday morning. She had claimed that the restaurant was her property and that no one would get in. She sporadically went to get food from the fridge and provoked the staff.
"She hit the man with her rod and in a fit of rage, the boy retaliated by hitting her back. We condemn the beating in the strongest terms possible. We have trained our staff to handle all customers in a courteous way," a statement from the hotel management reads.
