Women who bore the brunt of tribal attacks

SARAH lives in Dandora, one of Nairobi’s slums, which sits beside a giant dump of several kilometres.

The 13-year-old girl went to escort her aunt to get transport going north as violence escalated recently.

On her way back to Dandora in a matatu (bus), travellers were stopped at an illegal gang roadblock and forced to finish their journey by foot.

Sarah started walking back to her modest shack. Stranded, she asked a man for help only to be pushed down a dirt track and raped. A passing stranger later helped bring her to hospital. The teenager needed extensive reconstructive surgery.

“She’s went through loads of tests, including for HIV and pregnancy,” explained a hospital manager.

Eunice was in her home with her husband in the Nairobi slum of Mathare when a gang attacked them.

Her husband was beaten up but managed to escape. But Eunice, 45, was dragged out of her home by the gang of 12 men and brought to a ditch area nearby where two of the men then raped her. Passing police later helped Eunice up and brought her to hospital, where her cuts and bruises were treated.

She was discharged from the Nairobi Women’s Hospital over the weekend but cannot return home.