Mercy Jepkemei, a young woman from Emgwen constituency in Nandi County has resorted to hugging a tree to highlight the suffering in abusive marriages and toxic relationships that are on the rise in the East African nation.

According to Mercy, hugging a tree is a story that will turn everyone’s attention to torturous marriages or relationships.

As she endures the scorching sun in her 72-hour’s challenge, hundreds of the residents milled around her at the Nandi Garden in Kapsabet town, listening to her voice of reason and resolute passion in the fight against gender based violence in society.

Mercy gave a glimpse of her personal life that is coloured with painful emotional and physical suffering and lack of parental love. She grew up in an unstable family in which her parents were always fighting. Her mother abandoned her with four other siblings at home after a domestic brawl with her father.

From the beginning, she says, everything was bad at home as they were left under the mercy of their father.

Mercy said alcoholism had taken a toll on him and he abdicated his parental duties including upkeep and school fees for them. She blames alcohol as the main contributor to domestic violence in Kenya. 

Fortunately, she completed her secondary school education in 2019 and usurped parental responsibilities of taking care of her siblings. Getting food for them was a problem, which forced her to go an extra mile to work as tea-picker. At night, she worked as security guard at local hotels to raise extra money to sustain the family.

Mercy, 24, is said to have borne the brunt of a broken marriage, toxic families and drug abuse. She graciously shares her story to pump up awareness against gender-based violence, which she does by spending chilling nights and hot sun in the tree-hugging challenge that will end after 72 hours. The challenge will end on January 17, 2026.

She says nobody should sympathise with her as she is undertaking the Lord’s work by drawing attention to GBV. Violence is detrimental to, not only the children, but also the family as a basic institution that forms a society.

Mercy’s campaign is expected to introduce a new dimension addressing domestic violence that is ravaging Kenyan families both in villages and urban set-sups.

Many spent last night supporting her action with social media platforms flooded with encouragement messages.

• A Tell Media / KNA report / By Geoffrey Satia