Two deaths shine spotlight on violence against women in Kenya

Students at the Kibera Girls School Soccer Academy (KGSA) attend a memorial service for Cynthia Makokha (on the photograph), a teenage student who was raped and killed as she travelled home for school holidays, in Kibera district of Nairobi, Kenya October 15, 2021. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Cynthia Makokha was a 17-year-old student and volleyball player. Agnes Tirop was a 25-year-old rising athletics star, who finished fourth in the 5,000m race at the Tokyo Olympics and had won two World Championship bronze medals.

Both women were found dead in Kenya this week, and while their murders are not linked they have shone a spotlight on violence against women, which the government says has grown worse since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.