Women call for support to rebuild businesses destroyed in protests

Kisumu

Tuesday, August 1, 2023

KNA by Chris Mahandara

As the Azimio One Kenya Coalition party gears up for mediated talks with their Kenya Kwanza counterparts, women in Kisumu County have asked for support to rebuild their businesses following massive losses occasioned by the anti-government protests.

The protests left a trail of destruction in the area with several women-owned businesses, especially in the informal settlements looted.

Even though calm has been restored and businesses reopened, those affected are yet to come to terms with the losses and are appealing to the government to support them.

Claris Adongo, a businesslady based at Nyalenda slums said women and children bore the brunt of the demonstrations.

Adongo said police officers deployed to quell the protests used excessive force and broke into people’s homes and businesses past the demonstration hours leaving behind a trail of destruction and trauma.

“The police meted violence right inside our homes resulting in untold suffering, which left our children dead, injured and others traumatized. Further our businesses were plundered, our money stolen and our properties destroyed,” she said.

Most of the women-owned small businesses in the informal settlement, she said, were destroyed and with the high cost of commodities in the country the affected women are unable to reopen.

“We were threatened and teargassed as we watched our businesses being destroyed,” she said.

Besides support to reestablish their enterprises, Adongo asked Interior Cabinet Secretary (CS) Prof. Kithure Kindiki to take action against the police involved in the operation to deter similar occurrences in future.

“You have the power to hold them accountable for the damage and harm caused to us in the streets, our homes and in the slums. We are overwhelmed by the cost of living and our only sources of livelihood have been destroyed,” she said.

Millicent Randiki, a business lady at Bandani area asked the government to provide immediate relief to all the affected women to bring their businesses back to life.

Women, she said, cannot continue to bear the brunt of violence and human rights violations asking Kenyans to rally behind their call and ensure justice is served.

Picketing, she said, was a right enshrined in the constitution calling on all women in the area to join hands and defend one another.

“As women we must come together and speak with one voice because today it is me and tomorrow it is you. When you defend me, you defend women,” she said.

With uncertainty between the two sides of the political divide still rife, Randiki asked the youth to desist from any form of violence and exercise their right to picket with decorum and respect for other people’s property.

She further asked the government to address the concerns raised by Kenyans on the escalating cost of commodities to avert similar protests in future.

Courtesy ; K. N. A