Police Constable Emily Kinya, who was viciously attacked by protesters during last Wednesday’s demonstrations in Nairobi, has opened up about her harrowing experience.
Kinya was among officers deployed along Muindi Mbingu Street to control crowds marking the anniversary of last year’s anti-government protests.
In widely circulated footage, she is seen fleeing with a group of unarmed officers, only to stumble and fall as demonstrators gave chase.
“The protesters overwhelmed us,” she said from her hospital bed where she is recuperating.
"As we were withdrawing, I got hit on the foot, and then I fell. That is when they caught up with me.”
According to Kinya, who joined the National Police Service in 2013, some protestors urged others to kill her as she lay helpless on the ground.
“Luckily, a few tried to shield me. But there were those behind who kept hitting me and chanting, ‘Let’s kill her. They’ve killed one of us'."
Kinya, a mother of two, sustained a head wound and a soft tissue injury on her foot.
She also lost her mobile phone and police gear during the chaos.
She was eventually rescued by a some protesters who placed her in a waiting ambulance while bleeding.
Kinya, however, has a word to the protesters.
She said her children are traumatised by the events of the day.
“We are human beings too. Our lives matter,” she said.
According to her, “The moment was very depressing. It was short but ugly. You can’t even tell what really happened."
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has since condemned the attack and warned against targeting police officers, promising firm action against the perpetrators.
He also urged them to use their guns to protect themselves and even property.
“When someone comes to the police station and wants to take over the government’s office, the police gun and your life, shoot him," Murkomen told police officers.
