NCCK condemns attack on women, urges police to arrest suspects.

 The National Council of Churches of Kenya{NCCK} Nyanza regional Chairman Bishop Simon Achar{3rd L} address the press at Jumuiya Hotel in Kisumu where they condemned the yesterday's incident in which women attending an inter-religious meeting were attacked by rowdy youth claiming that they were involved in Identity Cards buying-Photo By Dickson Odhiambo.

By Dickson Odhiambo.

September 14, 2017.

NCCK condemns attack on women, urges police to arrest suspects.

THE National Council of Churches in Kenya has strongly condemned yesterday’s incident in which close to 200 women were attacked while attending an interreligious meeting at Jumuiya Hotel in Kisumu.

The women were accused by a rowdy mob who stormed the hotel of engaging in Identity Cards buying, an allegation which those who attended the meeting vehemently denied.

Nyanza NCCK Regional Chairman Bishop Simon Achar said the meeting was purely a religious one where the women were discussing the issue of peace ahead of the next month’s repeat Presidential polls.

Speaking at Jumuiya Hotel in Kisumu on Thursday, the NCCK Nyanza regional office said the meeting brought together various women involving Christians, Muslims and Hindu communities from all over Nyanza region with an aim of building peace in the community ahead of the next month’s polls.

The NCCK says it is unfortunate that the attackers gained entry into the premise and robbed the participants their valuables that includes Laptops, Mobile phones, hand bags, cash worth shs 100,000 meant for reimbursement as well as destroying the hotel facility where they brought down part of perimeter wall.

They want the police to conclude investigations into the incident and arrest the suspects who should be arraigned in court to answer various charges.

“We the clergy do condemn the act and call upon the police to speed up investigation into this nasty incident where we expect them to arrest and arraign the suspects in court to face charges,” they say.

The Civil Society Organizations have too joined the clergy in Nyanza in condemning the attack on women who were attending a religious meeting.

Through their team leader Betty Okero, the CSOs have said Police must investigate the incident and being the suspects to book and face the law.

She says the police should investigate a man who posted the issue of the alleged Identity Card buying at the Jumuiya Hotel which made the rowdy youth to come to the Hotel and attacked innocent women attending the interreligious meeting.

“This is very much unacceptable and police must dig deep into this matter and bring the culprits to book where they will face the law,” she says.

She adds that those women who were attacked some of them were aged between 60s and 70s, adding that this is a very unfortunate incident.

Bishop   Betty Onyango of Israel Nineveh church who was in attendance at the meeting condemned it, saying police must investigate the matter.

She said she was facilitating the meeting when a group of young people stormed the meeting ordering everyone to leave the venue while telling the participants that they were engaged in Identity Cards buying which was not true at all.

“I must condemn this act in the strongest terms possible and I want to call upon the popular political party here to come on board and should not thrive on rumors at all,” she says.

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