Nairobi Woman Representative Esther Passaris has stated that she was booed on Saturday January 27 as she was the only available punching bag.
Passaris noted that some political actors were also behind the scheme to rally the protesters against her.
However, the lawmaker dismissed claims that she was silent and did nothing to condemn violence against women.
She insisted that she had worked with various stakeholders to address the violence meted out to women.
“I was booed because I was the available punching bag to let out frustrations and to settle political scores. Not because “you did little too late”. I have been on a planning wall with CSOs for the Femicide March from inception. NGAAF and my entire team stood up to be counted as mandated. We finished the march strong. Now back to work knowing we are ALL part of the solution and the problem,”she stated.
From videos shared on X, the legislator was seen amidst a crowd of displeased protesters who appear to boo her, shut her down and force her away, while chanting and sloganeering.
Later, the parliamentarian spoke to the media, appearing teary-eyed, as she called on President William Ruto to lend a ear to the cries of the families of the deceased.
“I have spoken to a few CSs and said that the President’s voice needs to be heard on this. I’m proud that our party leader Raila Odinga spoke about it two weeks ago. We need the President to speak to it and understand that the family’s of these women who have been brutally murdered have got so much trauma,” she said.
“You’ve got to be totally inhuman not to feel the pain of these girls being killed so brutally.”
The nationwide march, dubbed ‘Feminists March Against Femicide’, is took place in 11 counties: Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Eldoret, Homabay, Turkana, Kilifi, Machakos, Kisii and Nyeri.
The protest followed a series of gruesome murders of women. The most recent are the murders of Starlet Wahu, 26, who was brutally murdered in a short-term rental apartment, and Rita Waeni, a first-year university student whose dismembered body was also found in another short-term rental apartment in Nairobi’s Roysambu area.
