Viral video shows woman dragged behind policeman’s motorcycle
Nairobi, Kenya:
Three Kenyan police officers were arrested on Thursday after a video went viral in which they were seen dragging a half-naked woman behind a motorcycle and whipping her for an alleged theft.
The arrest comes after an outcry over police violence in Kenya in response to protests that swept across the United States, which has sparked introspection in Africa, where citizens are routinely brutalized by police without justice.
In the 1.5-minute video taken on Wednesday in South Kuresoi, west of Nairobi, a policeman is seen on a motorbike, the woman being dragged behind, while others beat her.
This ordeal slips her pants, leaving her naked from waist to toe.
The woman was charged with breaking into the home of a police officer, according to a source from the Independent Police Supervisory Authority (IPOA).
“Three police officers were arrested yesterday … following the broadcast of a video showing a woman whipped and dragged on a motorcycle in the sub-county of South Kuresoi,” the direction of the criminal investigations said in a press release.
“The suspects are in regular detention, helping to further investigate the case,” he added.
The PAI also issued a statement saying it had opened an investigation into the matter.
“What about African lives?”
On Monday, around 200 people held a demonstration in Nairobi over the deaths of 15 people at the hands of the police since a curfew was imposed in March to fight the coronavirus.
In recent days, cities around the world have witnessed massive protests against racism and police violence caused by the murder last month of George Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed black man in the state of Minnesota. .
Floyd’s murder has not sparked major protests in Africa, but activists have increasingly called on countries on the continent to examine their own plague of police violence, which remains largely unpunished.
Kenyan police are often accused by rights groups of using excessive force and committing unlawful killings, particularly in poor neighborhoods.
Prominent Kenyan commentator and cartoonist Patrick Gathara drew a picture last week of a man representing African governments holding up a “Black lives matter” sign, kneeling on the neck of a man asking: “What about African lives? “
Somolon Dersso, Chairperson of the African Commission on Human Rights, in an editorial in the Mail and Guardian newspaper of South Africa, called on Africa to “have a much-needed conversation about the murders and other acts of violence visited on our civilian population “during the confinement coronavirus.
“These conversations should be accompanied by a wave of indignation.”
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
