NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Police in Kenya on Tuesday threw tear gas canisters at hundreds of protesters against gender-based violence or femicide in the capital Nairobi, arresting an unknown number of people.
Protesters chanting “Stop femicide” were dispersed by police in a public park where they had gathered and later engaged in clashes along the streets. Several protesters were injured in the confrontation on Tuesday.
One activist, Mwikali Mueni, told The Associated Press that she had suffered neck injuries at the hands of uniformed police officers and was on her way to hospital.
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“It’s very sad that I got hurt while advocating for women not to be hurt or killed. If the president is serious about ending femicide, let him start by taking action against the officers who brutalized us today,” she said.
Kenya is experiencing a silent epidemic of gender-based violence. Police said in October that 97 women had been killed since August, most by their male partners.
Last month, after a meeting with elected women leaders, President William Ruto pledged more than $700,000 to a campaign to end femicide.
Africa recorded the highest rate of intimate partner femicide in 2023, according to a UN report released in November to mark the start of a separate 16-day global campaign.
There have been a series of anti-femicide protests in Kenya and on November 25, during the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, police used tear gas to disperse a handful of protesters who had braved the bad weather.
Kenya was one of many African countries elected to the UN Human Rights Council on October 9.
Police action against protesters on Human Rights Day on Tuesday has been criticized by activists.
“Why are we being beaten and shot with tear gas even though we are peaceful? We will continue to take to the streets until the day women are no longer slaughtered like animals,” activist Mariam Chande told reporters.
Activists questioned how law enforcement agencies have handled cases of femicide, and protested the escape from police cells of a suspect who confessed to killing 42 women after dismembered bodies were found stuffed in plastic bags and dumped in a flooded quarry.
“It’s not fair that we can’t sleep well. You disappear and you come back in a bag,” said one protester who only introduced herself as Phoebe said.
