Joy Achieng Aoko, the Kenyan woman who was fighting for her life after an assault and rape in Albania, has died.
Speaking to Nation.Africa, Aoko's mother, Ms Ruth Abong’o, said she died on Monday, February 13, 2023, while receiving treatment at the Kenyatta University Teaching and Referral Hospital (KUTRH).
“We have lost my daughter. I only hope that as a family, we shall get justice,” Ms Abong’o said.
Aoko, who was brutally attacked while working in Albania, was medically evacuated to Kenya on January 25, after state intervention, because she was in a critical condition.
She was received at the Wilson Airport, aboard an air ambulance, by Diaspora Principal Secretary Rose Njogu and Acting Health Director-General Patrick Amoth.
Aoko travelled to Albania on February 14, 2022, and began working as a croupier in a casino, determined to make a better life for herself and her family.
She was found unconscious under the building where she lived in Tirana on August 13, 2022.
On September 12, Aoko's mother travelled to Albania to see her, but she was in a coma and in bad shape physically – her mother hardly recognised her.
“I found my daughter in the ICU. She was on the ventilator … she was covered in a lot of machines. I did not recognise her. She had contractions; she was all bandaged up,” the distraught mother explains.
“Doctors had given up hope because they had already given her medication and it had been six weeks. The doctors were wondering why she was not waking up.”
A medical report from Spitali Universitar 1 Traumes, to where the Kenyan woman was admitted, says she suffered several injuries, including fractures, and internal bleeding.
Civil society activists staged protests in Albania, saying the woman was raped, and accused the police of not doing enough in their investigations. They demanded justice for Aoko, various media reported.
Her mother went to the police, determined to find out what had happened. She was told that Aoko was found unconscious in the building where she lived.
Ms Abong'o is seeking justice; she is not convinced that police are doing enough to uncover what happened.
“Up to now there is no new information. They only told me they are doing investigations and that when they need me, they will call me. But since August, they have not reached out,” the mother lamented.
“The first hospital that [she] was rushed to has not released the medical report up to now. I want to see what my daughter was diagnosed with upon arrival in that hospital."
