By Caroline Ayugi
An expectant Gulu mother has been beaten to coma by her husband.
Ms Kevin Oyella, 24, who is seven months pregnant was rushed to Gulu Referral Hospital after a beating from her husband left her unconscious.
Ms Oyella, a resident of Pakoba village in Awach Sub County in Gulu District, was beaten by Walther Opiro, who is also the father of her two children.
Oyella told Acholi Times that her husband had asked her to call for her sister to help the family harvest their rice.
“When I reached my sister’s place–four kilometers away from our home, my sister did not immediately come with me, something that pissed my husband who accused me of wasting time,” Oyella said.
Oyella said her husband used pieces of Bamboo stick to hit her head.
“On realizing that the stick was no longer strong enough, he started boxing me all over. I managed to throw him down, and that is when he used his knee and pressed my belly and I became unconscious”.
Oyella said she regained consciousness a day later from Gulu Regional Referral Hospital.
Her husband Walter Opira went into hiding after the accident but was arrested by police and is being detained at Gulu Central Prison.
“I will never get back with him because he had almost killed me, and my children would have become orphans. Am ready to take care of my children alone however hard it will be,’’ said Oyella who told Acholi Times that she was rescued by her village LC1 who gave her cloth since she was half-naked after the beating.
She says her husband becomes violent whenever he is drunk, last month, she said, he beat her up when she was returning from an auction and tore her cloths.
She says she was only helped by the LC1 Chairperson of the village who gave her cloth since she was moving half naked.
In a similar incident, a -19-ywear-old, Sarah Atoo, resident of Layibi division in Gulu municipality was beaten to coma by her husband Patrick Okello, who accused her of infidelity.
Atoo, who is four months pregnant is admitted at Gulu Regional Referral Hospital.
She said her husband accused her of infidelity, an allegation she denies.
“He started beating me up. He kicked me on the belly. I could not walk and tried to crawl to get to the hospital and was assisted by good Samaritans to reach the hospital where am receiving medication now,” she narrated her ordeal to Acholi Times.
Atoo said she has pain in her belly and waist.
Her husband was arrested but later released by police, she said.
A midwife at the gynecology ward at Gulu hospital declined to comment on the condition of the two expectant mothers.
When contacted, the police spokesperson for Aswa region Jimmy Patrick Okema said he had not yet been informed about the two incidences, but promised to follow up.
Gender based violence remains rampant in Gulu and northern Uganda. Pamela Akello, the Regional Programme Manager FIDA, an association of Uganda female lawyers, said her organization regularly receives cases of domestic violence among couples.
“As FIDA we also do counseling to the couples and we help the survivors to get justice by helping them in having their cases investigated by police,” Ms Akello said.
She attributed domestic violence to alcohol.