E/CN.4/1996/35/Add.1 page 78 post-mortem reports. Some doctors who have criticized the police were said to have suffered adverse repercussions, including loss of job or government housing or transferral to another post. 416. Women were reported to be particularly vulnerable to torture or ill-treatment. Cases of rape by the police or security forces allegedly often go uninvestigated or are inadequately investigated. Prosecutions of officials for rape were said to be rare and any punishment was limited to dismissal or transfer to another post. Women in police custody were sometimes placed in the same cell as men, rendering them potential targets of sexual abuse by male detainees. 417. In a reply dated 28 November 1995 the Government stated that it categorically denied that torture was systematically used by police to obtain confessions from persons under arrest, persons in police custody or persons facing criminal charges. The Constitution of Kenya explicitly forbade torture, confessions obtained thereby were excluded from evidence in criminal trials and a right of redress by way of a direct petition to the High Court of Kenya was available to alleged victims. These considerations served as a deterrent against the use of torture by law enforcement officers, who were also forbidden by police law and regulations from subjecting suspects to torture. Contrary to the allegation, women in police custody were placed in separate cells from those of men. 418. In his above-mentioned letter, the Special Rapporteur also informed the Government that he had received allegations of torture in the individual cases described in the following paragraphs. The Government responded to one case, that of Richard Leakey and Njeri Kabeberi, and indicated that replies to the other cases would be forthcoming. 419. Rosemary Nyambura reportedly followed some police officers to Ruraka police station in Nairobi in the early morning of 10 May 1992 after they had searched and taken money from her. She was allegedly beaten to death by up to seven officers. The police contended that she had committed suicide, but a post-mortem report revealed that her death was due to ruptured kidneys and spleen. Although an investigation began one year later, it was reported that no police officer had been charged in connection with the incident. 420. Florence Muthoni, aged 16, was reportedly arrested in August 1992 under accusation of theft from her employer. At Buru-Buru police station in Nairobi she was allegedly burned and tied up with a rope and a stick was forced into her vagina. She was hospitalized with a variety of injuries, including vaginal bleeding, facial swelling, a bruised back and bruised thighs and burnt fingernails. Although two officers were charged with causing grievous bodily harm, they were released on bond and have remained on active duty. The case has reportedly not come to trial, three years after the incident. 421. Joyce Njeri was one of five women reportedly abducted and raped by two or three General Services Unit (GSU) officers in the Maela camp for displaced Kikuyu persons from Enosupukia in Narok district. She sustained an injury to her womb, which did not heal, and died after undergoing an operation. The incident was said to be only one of a number of rapes and sexual assaults committed by security personnel in the camps in the area. The abuses were