Joy Achieng Aoko died at the Kenyatta University Teaching and Referral Hospital (KUTRH) days after being evacuated from Albania.
Aoko's death was confirmed by her mother Ruth Abong’o who said the deceased died on Monday, February 13, 2023.
“We have lost my daughter, I only hope that as a family we shall get justice,” Abong’o was quoted as saying by the Nation.
Aoko was evacuated to Kenya on January 25, 2023, after she was brutally assaulted and raped in Albania - a country in southeastern Europe.
The deceased relocated to Albania on February 14, 2022, to work as a croupier in a casino in Tirana - the capital and largest city of Albania.
Aoko was found unconscious under the building where she lived in Tirana on August 13, 2022. According to police reports, she was reported missing before being found in a critical condition.
Reports indicated Aoko had been assaulted and also raped.
Aoko's mother said she was shocked to receive a call from the casino where her daughter worked informing her that she had been hospitalized after an accident.
“They did not tell me how my daughter got into the accident. Joy was healthy when we last spoke. What could have happened to her in the room?” The mother wondered.
On September 12, 2022, Aoko's mother travelled to Albania to see her daughter, but she was in a coma and in bad shape physically – her mother hardly recognised her.
“I found my daughter in the ICU. She was on the ventilator…she was covered in a lot of machines. I did not recognise her. She had contractions; she was all bandaged up. Doctors had given up hope because they had already given her medication and it had been six weeks. The doctors were wondering why she was not waking up," the mother said.
Aoko was medically evacuated to Kenya on January 25, 2023, after the government intervened as she was in critical condition.
She was received at the Wilson Airport aboard an air ambulance by Diaspora Principal Secretary Rose Njogu and the acting health director-general Dr Patrick Amoth.
