Rhoda Wairimu was admitted to Nairobi Women's Hospital on 22 September following a vicious assault by her husband. As a result of the attack, which involved a still unidentified sharp object, both of her upper arms had to be amputated and she received multiple stitches to head wounds. Her skull was fractured, and she is expected to undergo a cranioplasty next month.

Rhoda has two children, aged seven and two, both of whom witnessed the attack on their mother, and who were reluctant, because of how different she looked, to stand too close to her when they first saw her in hospital.

All three have received counselling to get them through the trauma. According to a psychological report: "Rhoda is going through a grieving process. She feels she has lost her beauty through her upper limbs and hair... Rhoda does not see how she is to forgive her husband for what he has put her through. She dreads seeing that man's face again in her life."

Rhoda is one of dozens of women who are looked after by the Gender Violence Recovery Centre in Nairobi every year, although her case is particularly severe.

She will require prostheses of both missing limbs to help her to be independent, although for the moment, the cost of these is proving prohibitive.

The Association of People With Disability in Kenya are unable to provide such prostheses, such is the complicated nature of what is required.

It is now envisaged that Rhoda's family will have to make a media appeal in order to attract 'Good Samaritans' to pay for the prostheses.