Update 16.50: The Kangundo assailant captured in the viral video has been arrested.
Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua has confirmed that the man will be arraigned in court while reiterated his call for social responsibility in such cases stating.
"As a society, we should not just sit and watch abuse of others among us. Speak out, scream, oppose, intervene. Don’t just watch," Mutua stated.
Machakos Governor, Alfred Mutua, has demanded the arrest of a man, said to be a waiter at a restaurant in Kangundo, Machakos, who was caught on tape beating a disabled woman.
In a statement on Sunday, March 15, the governor assured outraged Kenyans on social media that the man would be arrested. He also expressed his disgust at the people captured in the video that has since gone viral watching the disturbing manhandling of the woman without intervening.
"I have watched with disgust, a video allegedly from a restaurant in Kangundo, of a young man assaulting a woman, and I am shocked at this violent act. The young man will have to be arrested and jailed. Others in the video who just watch and do/say nothing will also need to be disciplined," stated Mutua.
The undated 30-second clip surfaced online on Saturday, March 14. It was allegedly recorded in a restaurant in Kangundo and shows a man in an orange shirt and black pants standing over a woman sitting on the floor with a whip n hand.
The man repeatedly whips the woman who seems unable to stand. A walking aid abandoned on the floor indicates that she suffers from some form of disability.
After giving her several lashes of the whip, the man then violently kicks her feet, before grabbing her by the arm and dragging her seated frame across the floor.
In the background, three women spotting white aprons and chef's caps stand at the edge of the frame playing silent witness to the scene, yet make no move to come to the aid of the woman.
As she is being dragged away, two women walk past seemingly laughing at the woman's predicament.
Machakos Communications Director Mutinda Mwanzia who spoke to Kenyans.co.ke provided that the Governor's office was looking to establish the circumstances surrounding the video.
"We actually want to get to know what really happened before we go public with it as a county," provided Mutinda.
The lady captured in the video had been taken to hospital for treatment but was later released but could not be traced.
The widespread use of smartphones in the country ushered in a new era in the use of video footage to document criminal acts in the country.
The current case as well as the eerily similar instance of a Chinese seen flogging a Kenyan illustrate this.
User-generated content is becoming an increasingly popular instrument to draw attention to human rights abuses not just in Kenya but globally.
Most of these videos, however, fail to miss the threshold to be used in a court of law.
