Nyeri First Lady condemns stripping incidents

Nyeri, Kenya: Nyeri First Lady Mrs Margaret Karungaru has supported a demonstration to be held in Nairobi on Monday, in protest against matatu operators who stripped a woman naked last week.

At the same time, Karungaru, Nyeri County Trade and Industrialisation Executive Secretary Stanley Miano and reigning Miss Tourism Nyeri Ms Rebecca Wairimu said the country should enact laws that protect women from humiliation, tagged on their mode of dressing.

Karungaru said although most men accuse women, especially youths of wearing provocatively, ancient African women did not wear clothes which covered all their private parts, while they were not subjected to stripping.

"As a Kenyan woman, i strongly condemn the stripping incidents. It is extremely wrong for our men to do that. It is very primitive," she said.

She continued: "Why is it that the same men do not strip women in the beaches, where women wear bikinis and expose their bodies openly".

She said women should not be judged by how they wear, since they have dignity that should be respected.

"I wonder what the government is doing. The perpetrators should have been charged as early as yesterday so as to bring the trend to an end," said Karungaru.

Speaking during this year's Miss Tourism-Nyeri Chapter pageant at Golden Gates Hotel in Nyeri, Karungaru said men who strip women expose their ignorance and primitive nature, noting that a man should protect a woman instead of being brutal to them.

"They should be removed from the society," she added.

Wairimu said those stripping women naked allegedly because of wearing provocatively should instead counsel the women instead of exposing their nudity.

"I support the way the Deputy President and other leaders came out strongly and ordered arrest of these criminals prowling on women.

If they were genuine enough, they should have provided the women with ‘lessos’ instead of stripping them," said Wairimu.

The model said women especially youths should be allowed to wear what they want, noting that elderly women used to wear short dresses.

"You cannot compare what our mothers used to wear when they were girls with what we are wearing currently," said Wairimu.

Miano said it was a demeaning for anybody to expose another person's nudity.

He said a man stripping a woman was a sign of him being insecure, adding that the society and human rights activists should stand and condemn the criminal acts.

He called on parents to correct their children, saying they should not allow them to be violated by strangers.

"We should stand up as men and protect our women from these violations," said Miano.

During the event, Miss Molly Ann Njoki was crowned Miss Tourism Nyeri, beating 13 other contestants, and taking over the crown from Wairimu.