Compensate police attack victims, former MP Phoebe Asiyo demands

Former Karachuonyo MP Phoebe Asiyo (left) looks at a portrait of Baby Samantha Pendo when she visited to condole with the family at Nyalenda slums, a day after the baby succumbed at Agakhan hospital in Kisumu. Looking on is Pendo's mother Lenser Achieng'. (Photo: Denish Ochieng/ Standard)

A former Karachuonyo MP wants the Government to compensate those assaulted by police during post-election protests.

Phoebe Asiyo said 61 women and children were brutalised during the four-day crackdown on demonstrators in Nairobi, Kisumu, Homa Bay, Siaya, and Migori.

"Police use of force against protesters who were only expressing their displeasure with the outcome of the presidential election must be condemned in the strongest terms possible," Asiyo said.

She added: "The attacks, especially on women, are unfortunate. Such things should not be happening in a civilised society such as ours. How does a six-month-old baby become a criminal? The Government must apologise and compensate the victims."

Asiyo spoke at the home of six-month-old Samantha Pendo, who died in hospital on Tuesday after police hit her on the head as they attacked her parents at Nyalenda slums in Kisumu.

"Pendo becomes the face of a country mourning because of cruelty administered by the very people it looks up to for protection, people who are supposed to strictly follow the law as they enforce it. Our hearts bleed," she said.