The venue at Jumuia Hotel in Kisumu where the meeting took place. [Photo/standardmedia.co.ke]
The National Gender and Equality Commission has condemned the attack on women in Kisumu town who were accused by irate youth of buying national ID cards ahead of the October presidential poll.
The victims said they were attending a capacity building seminar at Jumuia Hotel when they were attacked.
The meeting organised by the Inter-religious Council of Kenya brought together women from five counties in the region.
The youths claimed they had received information that IDs were being scanned at the meeting venue.
Police were forced to fire tear gas in the air on Wednesday to disperse the rowdy young men.
The gender commission's chairperson Winfred Lichuma is now calling on the Inspector General of Police and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to move with speed and arrest the perpetrators with a view to charging them in a court of law.
In a statement Saturday, the commission has also urged the youth to refrain from being incited to violence, reiterating that Kenya is governed by the rule of law and nobody should attempt to suspend the same when aggrieved.
The commission further wants Kitui East MP Nimrod Mbai to be arrested for calling for the rape of a female leader.
“If the words attributed to Kitui East MP Nimrod Mbai to the effect that someone should be raped were indeed his words, then the legislator should forthwith be arrested and charged with the offense of incitement to violence and disobedience of the law under section 96 of the Penal code, cap 63 of the laws of Kenya,” she said.
Lichuma expressed her displeasure at statements by politicians being directed at women saying they bordered on blatant gender-based violence.
“We wish to caution politicians against making inflammatory and inciting statements and particularly those calculated at advocating for gender-based violence and discrimination” she said.