Nairobi News

LifeWhat's Hot

Woman gang-raped in Nasa Friday march fights on


A woman who was gang-raped by goons on Friday as opposition supporters welcomed their leader Raila Odinga on Friday in Nairobi, was on Tuesday still nursing injuries at the Nairobi Womens Hospital.

The middle-aged woman was gang raped by five men who were part of the riotous mobs, inside her M-Pesa shop at Shauri Moyo, along Jogo Road.

The goons also looted and vandalised the shop.

The riotous mob was among thousands of opposition supporters who accompanied opposition leader Raila Odinga as he marched through Nairobi streets on arrival from a 10-day tour of the US and Europe.

On Tuesday, Youth Affairs and Gender Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki visited the woman at the hospital and condemned the treatment meted on her by the hooligans.

BARBARIC ACTS

Ms Kariuki challenged politicians to denounce such barbaric acts.

“The trauma that she has had to go through cannot be quantified. There are better ways to express ourselves and I urge politicians to implore their supporters to use better channels to voice their discontent,” said the minister.

Dr Muindi Brian, who in charge of the hospital’s clinical services, said of the woman who was said to have been highly traumatised by the ordeal: “The patient underwent psychological suffering and she will be receiving psychological treatment for the next three to five days. However, she is currently out of danger.”

The woman’s distraught husband said: “They got her inside an M-Pesa, took all her money and the other drinks she sells there. She tried running into a nearby hotel but they followed her, dragged her back to the shop and raped her.”

He said that he was called at around 5pm on Friday by people who knew his wife and informed him that she had been molested but they had taken her to hospital.

‘WHY RAPE MY WIFE?’

“If these people were after destroying and stealing things, why did they have to rape my wife? They could just have taken the money and the other goods and left her alone,” he said.

At her workplace in Burma Market along Jogoo road, the traders who had their businesses destroyed are slowly rebuilding.

Her M-Pesa shop stands closed with a clear slash of where the opposition supporters cut through to get inside.

Meanwhile, traders at the Burma Market demanded justice for their colleague and demanded the arrest of those who gang raped and abused her during the opposition March.

“We are very saddened by this. Why people have to do such an act, this was someone we know as we do business together,” said one of the traders who sells fruits a few meters from where she was attacked.

LOST BUSINESSES

The other traders who were affected by the chaos that saw Jogoo Road closed for more than three hours on Friday said they lost businesses worth millions.

Burma Market which supplies meat to most parts of CBD would not operate that day.

“We could not sell at all. I estimate that we lost around Sh20million that day,” said Mr Peter Kimani the chairman Burma Market.

A Forward Travellers Sacco minibus was also torched on the same day.

Mr George Mwogo one of the officials in the Sacco said the minibus was worth Sh4.6 million.

Other traders also had their stalls set ablaze, property looted and vandalized in what the opposition had indicated was supposed to be a peaceful march.