'I got out of the matatu and just stood out there and cried,' Anita Nderu talsk about sexual assault in a matatu

Radio and TV presenter Anita Nderu has fallen victim to sexual harassment, not once but thrice. This happened two times in a matatu and one time in a taxi.

Speaking to BBC, Anita narrated how a man literally put his hand on her left boob and was not apologetic about it.

“I have been have been harassed twice in a matatu and once in a taxi, and it’s a story I will have to remember for rest of my life. It’s just not fair. I have used matatus twice since the incident, I’ll never be 100 per cent comfortable as I was before,” she said.

“It all happened during the day when I was going to work. My thoughts were somewhere, so I was sitting facing the opposite direction, holding my bag and then I just felt something cold on my left boob. I looked down and I see a hand and I follow that hand and it’s this man who had tucked his hand into the sweater, into the bra and just hanging on to my boob. And I’m like, ‘What are you doing? Get your hand out of my boob.’ I try to get his hand out and he says to me, ‘But why do women have boobs then? Are they not there for us to touch them?’”

Anita added, “It’s the most helpless feeling because it’s not fair. You can’t just touch someone without them giving you the permission to do that. So he finally removed his hand and I’m shouting for the conductor and I’m like ‘this man is grabbing me, you’ll never believe what he has done’ and I’m telling the conductor what has happened and the conductor is like, ‘There’s nothing I can do.’

“As soon as the matatu comes to a halt, this man pushes my legs and gets out and walks away. I got out of the matatu and just stood out there and cried. Not one person asked me why are you crying. People just walked by and I’m talking to my dad and crying against the typical city life, everyone is in a hurry to go somewhere. You have to be a caring human being. If you see somebody hysterical on the street because something has happened to them, take a minute and find out how they are doing.

“If I could share my story, maybe other women would as well and other men would as well. Considering I’m a journalist in my country, I would like to actually open the debate and as a result people would actually see this is actually a problem,” Anita concluded.