The story could hardly be more horrific. A teenage girl, walking home from a funeral in western Kenya, was attacked and repeatedly raped by six men.
They threw her unconscious body into a latrine. Her spine was broken, and the girl – referred to simply as Liz to protect her identity – is now in a wheelchair.
The men who allegedly attacked Liz – three of whom she says she knows – were told to cut grass, then set free. The lack of punishment spurred a handful of journalists and activists to use social media to raise awareness of the case. The hashtags created did not get widespread traction, with #Justice4Liz getting just a couple of hundred tweets. But in recent days, an online petition set up by activist Nebila Abdulmelik started to gain international attention.
Hundreds of protesters in Kenya have handed over a petition to police demanding justice for a teenager who was gang-raped.
The 16-year-old was gang-raped and then thrown in a pit latrine breaking her back.
The three men accused of gang-raping her were ordered by police to cut grass as punishment.
The petition signed by 1.2 million people calls for the immediate arrest and prosecution of the alleged rapists.
They were then detained by villagers and taken to the police, who chose not to officially prosecute them.
Instead they ordered them to cut grass around a police station in Busia, near Lake Victoria.
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