Police in Kenya hurl teargas at protesters against gender-based violence

Police in Kenya hurled teargas canisters Tuesday at hundreds of protesters against gender-based violence, or femicide, in the capital, Nairobi, and arrested 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 running battles along the streets. Several protesters were injured in the confrontation Tuesday.

One activist, Mwikali Mueni, told The Associated Press that she suffered a neck injury from uniformed police officers and was heading to the hospital.

“It is very sad that I was injured while championing for women not to be injured or killed. If the president is serious about ending femicide, let him start by taking action on the officers who have brutalized us today,” she said.

Kenya has a silent epidemic of gender-based violence. Police in October said 97 women had been killed since August, most by their male partners.

Last month, President William Ruto committed more than $700,000 for a campaign to end femicide after meeting with elected women leaders.

A U.N. report released in November to mark the start of a separate 16-day global campaign said Africa recorded the highest rate of partner-related femicide in 2023.

There has been a series of anti-femicide protests in Kenya and on Nov. 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 among several African countries elected to the U.N. Human Rights Council on Oct. 9.

The police crackdown on protesters on Tuesday during Human Rights Day has been criticized by activists.

“Why are we being beaten and tear-gassed, yet we are peaceful? We will keep coming to the streets till the day women will stop being slaughtered like animals,” activist Mariam Chande told journalists.

Activists questioned how law enforcement agencies have handled femicide cases, protesting the escape from police cells of a suspect who confessed to killing 42 women after dismembered bodies were found stuffed in plastic sacks and dumped in a flooded quarry.

“It’s not fair that we can’t sleep well. You disappear, you come back in a sack,” a protester who only introduced herself as Phoebe said.