When Julian Anyango received a late-night message on April 30, she immediately sensed something was wrong.
The text came from a man her daughter had spent years trying — and struggling — to leave behind.
He claimed that Krystabel Anyango, known to family and friends as Bella, had collapsed and was being rushed to the hospital.
By morning, Aketch’s worst fears had hardened into tragedy.
Someone identifying himself as a police officer called the mother, Julian Aketch, to say Bella was dead and that her body had been taken to Veterans Hospital. But when Bella’s sister went to trace her, the family said she found the 28-year-old’s body inside a saloon car instead.
Days later, a postmortem examination would reveal blunt force trauma to Bella’s head, swollen eyes and scars across her body, according to the family.
Now, Aketch is telling her daughter’s story publicly — a painful account of what she describes as years of violence, manipulation and unanswered cries for help.
Bella worked as a Patient Coordinator at Jacaranda Maternity Hospital in Nairobi. To colleagues, she was hardworking and composed. To her family, she was a young mother trying to rebuild her life while caring for her 1.4-year-old child.
But behind that image, Aketch says, was a daughter trapped in a violent relationship.
According to Aketch, Bella had been in an on-and-off relationship with a man identified as Henry. The relationship, she said, was repeatedly marked by physical abuse and emotional suffering.
In 2024, after a breakup, Bella returned to the man.
Her mother says the situation quickly worsened.
Aketch alleges that while staying at Henry’s house, Bella became seriously ill but was neglected. The family only discovered she was pregnant after she was taken to the hospital.
“She told me she was suffering there,” Aketch recalled. “She was being mistreated and at times denied food.”
Alarmed by what her daughter was enduring, Aketch travelled to Nairobi and brought Bella back home to Kakamega, where she stayed throughout her pregnancy.
The family says Bella gave birth while under their care and that they alone handled the hospital bills and nursing expenses.
According to Aketch, Henry did not provide support during the pregnancy or after the child was born.
Later, however, Henry’s parents allegedly began reaching out to Bella, apologizing for their son’s behaviour and asking her to forgive him.
“They said he had made a mistake,” Aketch said. “They kept asking her to go back.”
Eventually, Bella returned to Nairobi, hoping to continue with her work and life.
But Aketch says the abuse continued.
“She would tell me he was violent and drank a lot,” she said.
At one point, Aketch claims Henry sent her a photograph showing Bella lying on the floor after an alleged beating.
“I warned her to leave him before something terrible happened,” she said.
On April 21, Bella asked her mother to send her Sh1,500 for fare. Aketch sent the money, unaware it would be one of their final exchanges.
Nine days later, the message came claiming Bella had collapsed.
The circumstances surrounding her death have since sparked outrage within the family, especially after they learned the man they consider the prime suspect had allegedly been released from Mlolongo Police Station before disappearing.
The family is now demanding justice and answers from investigators.
Bella will be buried on May 16.
She leaves behind a 1.4-year-old child — and a grieving family haunted by the warnings they say came too late to save her.
“She was trying to survive,” Aketch said softly. “Now my daughter is gone.”