Human rights activists, feminists, and citizens of Albania protested Monday, February 20, outside the Tirana Judicial District Prosecutor’s Office over the heinous injuries inflicted by unknown people on Joy Aoko Achieng’, a Kenyan migrant worker.
Joy, as she was fondly called at home and abroad, succumbed to severe injuries a week ago. She died in Kenyatta University Teaching and Referral Hospital in Nairobi, the Kenyan Capital.
A source familiar with how Aoko’s died said she died from loss of breathing and blamed Kenyatta University Hospital for not taking care of her appropriately.
Another source in Albania familiar with the prosecution informed Africana Voice that prosecutors had sent a letter to the Kenya government requesting an expert report regarding the cause of Aoko’s death. The Albanian prosecutors are considering enhancing their potential charges to murder if the Kenyan report can prove the brutal attack caused Aoko’s death and not other factors.
The protesters in Albania faulted the prosecutor for the lack of investigation into the death of Aoko.
In a statement, the Feminist Collective group in Tirana, Albania’s Capital, said they could not compromise to gain the right to life in 2023. Furthermore, the protestors condemned the silence, indifference, and lack of interest in Aoko’s case by the police and investigative bodies.
“Patriarchy kills women, and the state has become a party. Today we protest for Joy, and all the women’s lives lost to femicide. We don’t want to live in a society that normalizes killing women; we want justice, protection, and dignified life for all women!” the activists of the Feminist Collective said in a statement.
Aoko jetted out of Kenya for Albania in search of greener pastures. She got a job in Tirana, working in a casino business. Her mother, with whom she was constantly communicating, revealed a month ago that before Aoko’s attack, she was being dogged by her male colleague.
“She told me: ‘Mama when this boy asked me for a relationship, I told him I’m not ready for a relationship,’ ” said Ruth Abongo, the mother.
Abongo was speaking from a hospital ward in Tirana, where her girl was lying, comatose.
“The world can eat you alive. I’ve never seen a long journey. I knew one day I would be on a plane, but not with my tears, worry, darkness, fog, and painful thoughts about my own baby,” she said, referring to her flight from Nairobi to Albania to attend to her ailing daughter.
In August 2022, Aoko was found outside the apartment where she lived. She was unconscious and with severe wounds. Reports indicate she might have been raped, but according to people familiar with the investigation, police have not confirmed whether she was raped. A source told Africana Voice police alleged Aoko attempted suicide an assertion the source refuted as implausible and inconsistent with the injuries Aoko sustained, which included multiple broken bones, and ripped clothes consistent with sexual assault.
Our source disclosed that many people connected to the case and working at the Casino have quit, including two Georgian women who discovered Aoko’s nearly lifeless body outside her apartment.
In various media interviews, Abongo recounted her close relationship with a daughter whom she said described as the one who improved her life in Kenya.
“My daughter and I were constantly communicating via Whatsapp, but she went quiet in August,” Abong’o told the Kenyan press in January.
“I would two days later get a message that my daughter had been involved in an accident and taken to the hospital, where she was in the ICU,” she added.
In September 2022, the mother left Kenya for Albania to care for her child, who was fighting for her life in a life support machine, almost 5 000 km away from her native home in Homa Bay County.
While there with her, she slightly improved and started breathing. However, the mother said when Aoko finished her drugs, the doctors refused to attend to her saying the Albanian hospital lacked the capacity to provide her the medical assistance she needed.
She reached out to the Kenyan government, which advised her to come back to Kenya with her daughter so that she could get treatment locally. Thus, on January 25, 2023, Aoko, in her mother’s company, was airlifted to Kenya from an Albania Hospital.
Upon landing at Nairobi Wilson Airport, the 22-year-old girl was immediately transferred by a waiting ambulance to the Kenya University teaching a referral hospital.
Unfortunately, on February 13, she died, and her seven months of struggle to stay alive came to an end.
The Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs released a statement commiserating with Aoko’s family and calling for speedy investigations from the Albanian authorities.
“The State Department for Diaspora Affairs has received, with great sadness, the news of the death of Ms. Joyce Achieng Aoko at Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral and Research Hospital in Nairobi,” the statement stated in part.
“The Ministry continues to engage the Government of the Republic of Albania to conclude the investigations and ensure the perpetrators against Ms. Aoko are brought to justice,” the statement further noted.
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