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Move over, it is the era of emancipated and empowered women. Who needs to be married to a fellow human being when you can marry your work?
Health CAS Mercy Mukui Mwangangi has often captivated many with her intellect, beauty and charm. That she has chosen to remain single has often been pegged on her choice to embrace the feminism ideology. She has never shied away from admitting to have been a strong member of feminist groups.
However, could it be borne out of an unpalatable experience in the past as well?
Mwangangi has narrated how a phone call to her lawyer saved her from a partner who was whiskers away from becoming physically abusive.
Fresh from the Australia’s University of Adelaide, where she earned a master’s degree in Health Economics and Policy, she was beginning to settle in when one night, she had a heated verbal tiff with her boyfriend.
In the midst of shock and fear, she had to act swiftly to be safe.
“That night at 3 am when we had the altercation, I remember thinking, okay so this has happened, whom should I call? And interestingly the first person I called was my lawyer to see if there was a legal recourse,” she recalled.
The recounted this during the Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response scientific conference at the Kenya School of Government in Nairobi.
She admits the former boyfriend never physically assaulted her, but the rage he depicted could have escalated into physical abuse and battering.
“He was beating walls around me. He was enraged and there was a lot of scuffling, I remember thinking I am an empowered 29-year-old woman. How could this happen to me?”
Mwangangi said she was shocked at how she found herself in such an abusive relationship.
“I am privileged I am not from a poor background, and I have resources. I am educated. I have my own home, an apartment, my own car, and everything I needed to empower myself to be an independent female,” she said.
Adding that,
“It can happen to any of us be it male, be it female, young or old.”
The 36, separated from the abusive partner.
In 2020, she told KTN’s Health Digest: “I am highly married to my work, but I do have a partner who is very supportive, and he is another cheerleader in my court.”
