Key Points
- Police fire tear gas at Kenya’s anti-femicide protesters.
- Amnesty Kenya director Irungu Houghton was arrested at the march.
- At least 97 women killed in Kenya since August.
A Reuters reporter and human rights groups say that while hundreds demonstrated against an increase in femicides on Tuesday, Kenyan police used tear gas and detained at least three individuals.
Police fire tear gas, arrest protesters at anti-femicide march
Hundreds of demonstrators, primarily women, marched through Nairobi while yelling, “Stop killing women!” and blowing whistles. The protesters reassembled and resumed their march after police used tear gas from moving cars to scatter them. Videos posted on social media revealed similar protests in the cities of Mombasa and Lodwar.
Nairobi protesters stayed nonviolent, and the reason for the police intervention was not immediately apparent. Requests for comment from the National Police Service were not answered.
Irungu Houghton, executive director of Amnesty International Kenya, was among those arrested, Amnesty and three other rights organizations said in a statement.
The statement said, “This protest was a brave stand against the killing of women, a demand for criminals to be held accountable, and a demand for urgency in investigating these murders.”
The statement also said, “The police’s violent response… is a direct attack on Kenya’s democratic principles and the human rights of its citizens.”
At least 97 women killed in Kenya since August
According to Reuters, at least 97 women were murdered in femicides – deliberate killings with a gender-related purpose — in Kenya between August and October.
There were at least 75 femicides in 2022 and 46 in 2021, according to data from the Africa Data Hub collective, which monitors media coverage of femicides.
Patriarchal attitudes and inadequate legal protections for women are cited by researchers as the reasons behind Kenya’s high rates of gender-based violence.
Similar criticism has been leveled at the Kenyan police force for how it handled anti-government demonstrations in June and July, during which at least 60 people were killed.
Although they have stated that investigations are being conducted into claims of misbehavior, authorities have mainly backed the police response.
