NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 7- Top Government officials have condemned the March 4 incident when a woman was sexually assaulted by boda boda riders in Nairobi, after an accident.
The rogue riders also stole her phone and cash amounting to Sh130,000.
Led by Interior Cabinet Secretary Dr. Fred Matiangi, the officials have called for the immediate arrest of the perpetrators.
In a Tweet, CS Matiangi said he was shocked and disgusted by the incident.
While the incident happened on March 4, it only went viral on Monday, after it was shared on Twitter.
“We must protect our roads from such vile and reprehensible acts of aggression,” the Interior Cabinet Secretary said.
“I have asked our security agents to ensure that all the perpetrators of this dastardly act are swiftly apprehended and suitably punished for their heinous act.”
The video emerged a few hours to the International Women’s Day, when such incidents are condemned and ways of promoting and protecting women discussed.
While it is the latest, it is not an isolated incident.
A section of Boda boda riders are known for operating with utter impunity while disregarding all laws, may it be traffic or otherwise.
Energy Cabinet Secretary Dr Monica Juma equally condemned the incident, while calling for justice.
“All those involved must face the full force of the law,” she asserted.
“What a shame that no one could help or protect this young woman from this criminal attack in broad daylight? How did our society come to lose all humanity? Really?”
The victim was driving from Gigiri to Parklands, but on reaching Barabara Tano, got involved in a road accident.
It was involving a boda boda operator.
According to police and witnesses, she was accosted by the rogue boda boda riders, “as she drove to safety.”
According to a police report seen by Shahidi news, some of the riders “inserted fingers in her private part while others touched her breasts.”
The gang also stripped off her clothes.
“The matter is under active investigations. We have since identified some of the perpetrators and they will be presented before a court of law upon completion of investigations,” National Police Service spokesperson said.
Representative of the National Police Service Commission at the Salary Remuneration Commission Wangui Muchiri also called on police to act fast and apprehend those who were involved.
In a Tweet, the former Interior Ministry spokesperson termed the incident as “disturbing and unacceptable.”
Nairobi Governor Anne Kananu expressed her shock, saying “we have failed as a society if such crimes are allowed to go unpunished.”
“I have watched the clip of the boda boda operators harassing a lady at Forest Road. I am horrified to death and I can’t believe the kind of trauma that lady had to go through.”
Previous efforts to streamline the chaotic sector, which employs more than 2 million people, have been futile.
Such efforts have been led by the Interior Cabinet Secretary and Ps Karanja Kibicho.
Police statistics show thugs have also resulted in using boda boda’s while executing their evil schemes.
For example, a man was over the weekend killed in Juja by men who were riding a motorcycle. He was shot dead in what now has become a common trend.
Activist Boniface Mwangi, without making reference to the Forest Road incident, said boda boda (operators), “are the biggest threat to national security, worse than terrorism.”
He added that, “their everyday recklessness on the road causes accidents that lead to loss of limbs and lives. Some of them are in gangs that rob, maim and even kill.
They need to be regulated before it is too late.”
Lobby group Usikimye urged the government to crack down on the rogue operators and restore law and order in the way they operate.
“We have as a country allowed boda bodas to be a law unto themselves. Her screams of terror and fear are telling a story of how we invalidate women,” the lobby group said in a Tweet.
“The fact that the society is okay with sharing this video, redistributing trauma…”
There has been increased efforts by state and non-state actors to curb the vice of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in the country.
Such cases are said to be on the rise during an electioneering period.
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