KNH mortuary attendants fight claims of raping new mums at night
Police were forced to intervene after two opposing groups clashed outside the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) on Monday over claims that nursing mothers had been raped at the facility.
Mortuary attendants at KNH protested against claims that some of them had raped new mothers as they moved from their wards to attend to their newborns in the dead of the night.
Armed police officers locked the main gate and positioned themselves to separate two rival groups of demonstrators from clashing at the hospital.
The mortuary attendants, who were joined by other workers, were countering a demo by the Health Empowerment Network which was demonstrating against the facility following allegations of rape made on a Facebook page last week.
‘NOT RAPISTS’
Some attendants carried placards written “We are not rapists”.
The Facebook post on Buyer Beware claimed that some women, including those who had given birth through caesarian section, had been assaulted at the facility.
The post said that nurses had advised the women to move in groups to avoid the attacks.
It added that in some instances, the mortuary attendants scare the woman using bodies in order to subdue them.