Esther Wanjiru Mwikamba was a Kenyan woman who died on March 20, 2012 following a

coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal wake-sleep cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. Coma patients exhi ...

state since February 18, 2012 when she was brutally assaulted for questioning the

molestation Sexual abuse or sex abuse, also referred to as molestation, is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another. Molestation often refers to an instance of sexual assau ...

of her friend, while she with her friends were leaving a night club in

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...

The incident

The incident happened in the early hours of February 18, 2012 at the car park behind the

Crowne Plaza Hotel Crowne Plaza is a British multinational chain of full service, upscale hotels headquartered in the United Kingdom. It caters to business travelers and the meetings and conventions market. It forms part of the InterContinental Hotels Group family ...

Sheikh Zayed Road E 11 ( ar, شارع ﺇ ١١) is a highway in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The longest road in the Emirates, it stretches from Al-Silah in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and ends in Ras al-Khaimah emirate, running roughly parallel to UAE's coastl ...

, Dubai. Esther with two other women were walking to a waiting taxi during dark early morning when a group of young men in their early twenties approached them uninvited. Eyewitnesses alleged that unwarranted advances by one male led to the violence. They claimed that he groped one of the women on her buttocks. One of the women, Susan Wanjiru, said she immediately protested in very clear terms and told the offending man to leave her friend alone. The unidentified man answered with a punch to Susan's face, she claimed. When Susan was knocked from her feet, Esther attempted to defend her friend, throwing one of her shoes in the direction of the assailant. According to Susan, the group of men quickly gathered up their male friend and placed him in a four-wheel-drive vehicle to defuse the scene and apologized saying that he was drunk. But the man left the vehicle, then allegedly punched Esther in the face, knocking her to the ground, and began kicking her in the head. Her friends said that the assailant repeatedly kicked Esther in the head, even though her friends resisted, while she was lying on the ground defenseless, bleeding from her ears, nose, and mouth.

The victim

The victim, Esther was 26 at the time of attack and was working in a retail store and was formerly a sales clerk at a major store in the

Dubai mall The Dubai Mall ( ar, دبي مول "Dubai Mall") is a shopping mall in Dubai. It is the second largest mall in the world after the Iran Mall by total land area, and the 26th-largest shopping mall in the world by gross leasable area, tying with ...

. She was described by her friends as a "petite young woman full of life and strong mind with a personality and zest for life leads her to speak her mind and often help friends".

Treatment and death of the victim

Esther was immediately rushed to

Rashid Hospital Rashid Hospital (in Arabic language, Arabic: ) is a 786-bed general medical/surgical hospital in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, and is a part of the Dubai Health Authority. Built in 1973, it is the city's second oldest hospital, and is located on ...

, Dubai by an ambulance and eyewitnesses said that she was bleeding from her ears, nose and mouth. She was admitted to intensive care unit where she remained in coma stage till her death. Kenyan community in the

UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

, supported by the Kenyan Embassy, Abu Dhabi and the Kenyan Welfare Association, Dubai helped her mother Hanna Mwikama to come to Dubai and spend at her daughter's bedside during her last 3 weeks in coma. She succumbed to death on March 20, 2012 early morning after being in coma stage for 30 days.

The perpetrator

A 23-year-old jobless Emirati was arrested following the incident and was charged with 'assault leading to death' and for sexually molesting Esther's friend.

Punishment

The Dubai court convicted the Emirati perpetrator of assault leading to death and handed down the three-year sentence. The defendant was given another year behind bars for sexually molesting Esther’s friend. According to UAE law the maximum penalty for assault leading to death is 10 years in jail. In May 2012, he admitted beating her, yet he declared «I never meant to kill Esther». In July, the mother of the victim requested to meet with the killer, and readers of the country's newspapers '' The National'' created a community of support to provide financial assistance to the family of the victim. In November, the killer lost his appeal to reduce his four-year sentence.Bassam Za’za’
Dubai car park attack: Esther murderer loses appeal
''Gulfnews.com'', 4 November 2012 (accessed on 30 July 2019)

References