NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 27 – A man who had expressed support for recent cases of violent killings targeting women in a viral video was kicked from a femicide demonstration in Nairobi on Saturday.
Tension escalated as protesters gathered at Jeevanjee Gardens recognized the man and dramatically kicked him out.
Despite his attempts to explain his sentiments, the protesters remained steadfast in their decision, eventually resorting to physically push him out of the park.
Intervention from marshals was required to escort the man out of the park safely, as some demonstrators threw water bottles and other objects at him while chanting slogans such as “Shame on you” and “Stop killing women.”
The peaceful march, conducted in Nairobi and other towns, emphasized the importance of protecting women and the girl child. Political leaders and civil society organizations called for strict action against perpetrators.
Femicide Count Kenya, an organization that tracks killings reported in local news, reported a total of 152 cases of women and girls killed in 2023.
The demonstration followed the murders of socialite Starlet Wahu and Jomo Kenyatta University of Arts and Technology (JKUAT) student Rita Waeni. Their lifeless bodies were discovered in short-stay houses in Nairobi, highlighting the grim reality of femicide in the country.
In the recent cases, Wahu’s body was found in a short-stay rental house in Nairobi’s South B area.
A man believed to have been responsible for her death was arrested shortly thereafter while seeking medical treatment at a hospital.
Investigations revealed that she had been stabbed multiple times before her body was left in the room where she and the man had spent the night.
In Waeni’s case, police reported finding her dismembered body discarded in a plastic bag next to a trash bin near the short-stay house that a man had booked for their rendezvous. The main suspect was still at large by the time of this publication.
