Emily Kinya, the female police officer who was attacked by angry protesters in Nairobi's Central Business District (CBD) on Wednesday, June 25, has broken her silence.
Kinya was attacked by the protesters on Muindi Mbingu Street after her team was overpowered by the demonstrators, who began chasing after them.
While scampering for safety, she accidentally tripped and fell. It was during the incident that she was attacked by the mob, which threatened to take away her life.
In the footage recorded on camera and shared widely on the internet, Emily was captured lying on the ground as youthful protesters threw blunt objects at her.
During the ensuing melee, the officer sustained critical injuries to the head and limbs; however, she was rushed to the hospital, where she received treatment.
Speaking to Citizen TV, barely three days after the incident, the mother of three said that one of her children is yet to recover from the trauma of seeing her mother being attacked by the demonstrators.
Emily, who spoke while seated on her hospital bed, said she escaped death by a whisker, adding that, during the incident, she heard some protesters calling for her to be killed.
"The protesters overwhelmed us, so as we were withdrawing, I hit my foot on the ground and fell. I hit my foot on the ground because I was hit from behind," she narrated.
"Luckily, there are those who shielded me, but there are those from behind who hit me and shouted, ‘let’s kill her, they have killed one of us.’" Emily recalled.
Besides suffering bodily injuries, Emily, who joined the National Police Service in 2013, said she also lost her mobile phone and police equipment.
"We are humans as well, so I think our lives matter too. My foot where I was hit got a soft tissue injury, I suffered a deep cut on the head," she noted.
In a similar incident in Embu, a male police officer was overpowered and attacked by a group of protesters who cornered him along the n the Embu-Nairobi Highway and injured him.
