Sixteen boda boda riders have been arrested and five motorbikes impounded over the sexual assault of a female motorist along Nairobi’s Wangari Maathai Road last Friday, Nairobi Area Traffic Commandant Joshua Omukata has said.
The suspects, the Inspector-General of Police Hilary Mutyambai says are assisting detectives in their investigations.
“We have arrested 14 suspects,” Mutyambai said of the arrest that followed pressure mounted by Kenyans on Twitter.
For the better part of Monday, the incident was trending on social media where users asked police to take immediate action and lock the culprits behind bars.
Meanwhile, Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i condemned the incident and vowed action on perpetrators. Energy Cabinet Secretary Monica Juma too issued a statement condemning the incident.
It is, however, unclear what caused the unfortunate attack, though it is speculated that it was caused by an accident involving her and a boda boda operator. Police Spokesman Bruno Shioso has noted the riders were being hunted.
The woman can be heard screaming in the undated video as the men undress her while others order her to be removed from the car.
This has so far caused uproar as the Protective and Safety Association of Kenya (PROSAK) called upon the Inspector General of Police to assemble a rapid response team to deal with the now many incidents of this nature.
“It has come to our attention that following a Road Traffic Accident (RTA) involving a silver saloon passenger vehicle, being driven by a young lady, and a public transport motorbike (boda boda), along Wangari Maathai Road (formerly Forest Road), on the morning of 7th March 2022, that several boda boda riders surrounded the vehicle driven by the lady, forced her door open and physically harassed her to the point of stripping her half-naked in an attempt to force her out of her vehicle,” they said in a statement.
Boda boda riders have been termed as notorious savages for torching cars, beating up drivers and stealing from them, yet nothing ever seems to happen to reign in on them in a bid to stop their barbaric actions.
Inspector General of Police Hilary Mutyambai condemned a similar incident in November 2020 in which riders were captured on camera attacking a motorist on Thika Superhighway after he allegedly hit their colleague.
“This incident was unfortunate. No one is above the law. Harassment by boda boda riders is not acceptable at all and my officers are hunting down the riders captured here physically assaulting the driver. I also urge the victim to report to the nearest police station,” he said.