The Federation of Women Lawyers Kenya (Fida-Kenya) has offered to represent Mercy Cherono - the woman who was tortured and dragged by an OCS using a motorbike in Kuresoi South on Monday, for allegedly stealing.
The organisation has also promised to offer psycho-social support to Cherono, who was seen being beaten and pulled on a dirt road by a motorbike as a police officer caned her back with a rubber whip.
Fida executive director Anne Ireri on Friday said the organisation will look for background information on the 21-year-old mother of one to find out the underlying causes that might have pushed her to crime, if at all she is found guilty.
“There might be a reason as to why she engaged in crime and because one of the missions of Fida is to empower women, we will support her to ensure that she does not revert to crime either because of poverty or stigmatisation,” said Ireri.
She said that it was unfortunate that such cases of police brutality were happening in Kenya in 2020.
The Executive Director who later visited the Rift Valley Regional Commissioner, George Natembeya said her organisation will represent Cherono in the case against the police for the torture and the alleged theft charges against her.
Speaking at the Nakuru County Referral Hospital after visiting Cherono, Ireri said the Kuresoi South incident was a case of abuse of the process of law.
“That was not the way to handle a person who has come into conflict with the law, Police should have arrested her properly and charge her as required by the law,” she said.
Ireri observed that cases of violence had increased during the Covid-19 pandemic, adding that the Fida toll-free number had recorded 800 cases since April 1, when it was launched.
She said the Kuresoi South incident was unfortunate, not because it was against a woman, but because no human should be subjected to such treatment.
Cherono was picked from a pub in Olenguruone and tortured on claims that she had stolen household goods from a neighbour.
She suffered broken bones, a cut on the head and soft tissue injuries on the hands and back. She was admitted at the Olenguruone Subcounty Hospital before being moved to Nakuru County Referral Hospital for security reasons.
The video of her going through the ordeal went viral, prompting a public outcry from members of the public and senior officers in the government among them Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i and Natembeya.
Three police officers have since been arrested in connection with the torture and are being held at the Nakuru Central Police Station.
