Nearly 1,000 people took to the streets of Nairobi on Monday to protest against a series of vicious sexual assaults on women who were attacked for wearing mini-skirts or 'immodest clothing'.
One of the attacks saw a woman surrounded by dozens of men who, tore off her clothes, beat and kicked her in the genitals.
The
woman had been standing at a busy stop in Nairobi’s Central Business
District, when the men attacked, later telling local media that she had
been ‘tempting’ them by being ‘indecently dressed’.
Empowered: The #MyDressMyChoice march
in Nairobi on Monday followed several sexual assaults on women blamed on
the victim's choice of clothing
Nearly 1,000 people, mainly women, protested in Nairobi today, defending their right to chose what to wear
Fighting back: One of the organisers of the protest said she was aware of ten separate attacks across Kenya
Grainy videos of the attack taken
on cellphones and circulated widely via Twitter and other social
media.
One of the organisers of today's #MyDressMyChoice march said she was aware of ten separate attacks across Kenya.
The Nairobi attack, which
happened in broad daylight on a busy street last week, sparked
outrage in the cosmopolitan capital.
Deputy President William Ruto called the incident barbaric
and Inspector General Police David Kimaiyo has appealed to the
victim to come forward, local media reported.
The march on Monday, which was made up mostly of women, was
an unusual public display of support for women's rights in
Kenya, where sex crimes are rarely prosecuted.
Kiss my: One young woman has a powerful message to the haters during Monday's protest
Walking proud: The most recent incident in Nairobi saw a woman attacked at a bus stop
The recent incident was filmed and
shared on several social networks leading to a groundswell of anger that
on Monday prompted around demonstrators, including a number of men
supporting the women's cause, to march through the capital and protest
online using the hashtag #MyDressMyChoice
'I think the reason this sparked such outrage is it was so
graphic and everyone who watched it felt violated,' male artist
and activist Boniface Mwangi, who donned a short dress for the
march, told Reuters. 'It could have been my wife, my daughter,
my mother.'
The crowd waved banners and chanted 'My Dress, My Choice',
then marched across central Nairobi to a bus stop that was the
site of the attack.
'African women are given a long list of things they need to
do to earn respect, whereas men are respected just because they
are men,' said Ciru Muriuki, a radio producer in Nairobi.
'This is our way of saying, it's my body and I can dress it
any way I see fit.'
Some have taken to Twitter to defend the men using the
hashtag #NudityIsNotMyChoice, however.
'An African woman should be decent,' said James Macharia, a
26-year-old student who stood watching the rally with a group of
other men. 'They are provoking us. And I think we should put in
place laws to curb that.'
The attacks recalled similar incidents in neighbouring
Uganda, which passed an anti-pornography law last December that
was widely seen as banning short skirts.
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