A video of a young woman being publicly beaten is being widely circulated in Kenya, with online users incorrectly claiming it occurred in the country.
According to some reports, the girl had previously escaped from a forced marriage and had returned to collect her belongings before returning to school when she was beaten.
Others claim she fled home to avoid female genital mutilation.
Former Nairobi governor Mike Sonko, who has shared the video, says he has “instructed a group of female lawyers to pursue the case and ensure the girl gets justice.”
…school opened and as she was going back home to get her belongings so that she could report back to school the brother got hold of her and he initiated the beating together with his friends, they later took her to the forest and performed a worst fgm operation on her.
— Mike Sonko (@MikeSonko) January 31, 2023
Some men behave like animals and deserve to rot in jail.
This video clip has been doing rounds on social media. Due to its sad content im just sharing a very small part of it.https://t.co/SQNAoQPjod pic.twitter.com/NGiKSnpJoZ
— Mike Sonko (@MikeSonko) January 31, 2023
However, the video appears to have been shot in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
It is one of a number of similar posts circulating online, all of which appear to be from the eastern Maniema province and depict young women and girls being beaten in public by groups of men wielding sticks and other weapons.
The men are thought to be members of a vigilante group operating in the area, imposing their interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia, publicly flogging women for wearing short skirts and trousers, among other things.
Albert-Fabrice Puela, the DR Congo’s Minister of Human Rights, recently issued a statement condemning the incidents and urging police to hold the perpetrators accountable.
