What next after sexual violence goes viral?

Just pause for a moment and think about the implications of a country with no laws. No rules. No guidelines. No social boundaries. No moral compass.

Can you even imagine the mayhem? It's almost impossible to fathom the chaos that would ensue, especially in a country such as ours, where every opportunity to bend the rules is savoured. And yet, we are beginning to see signs of anarchy.

When that young woman was stripped by a mob of matatu touts, it should have been a wake-up call. Instead of analysing the thing from every angle, watching and re-watching grainy footage of the crime, spending endless wo(man) hours debating merits and demerits, and even holding a demonstration, pressure should have been brought to bear on the police department to 'launch investigations', track down the perpetrators and make every attempt to bring them to justice. That's what laws are for and there is no shortage of legislation in this country.

From what I understand, there was a 'swoop' after the video went viral, a la Eastleigh in the aftermath of Westgate and the scattered incidents of terror that followed, and men were arrested. While that was a step in the right direction, the likelihood that any of those men will be brought to book is slim.

The policemen are better motivated to charge drivers for traffic offences than they are to bring the force of the law to bear against sexual offenders. Someone said they take it personally when bribes are not forthcoming, so they throw the book at you more as a punishment for bucking a corrupt system than for breaking the law.

For cases of sexual and gender violence, there is no impetus to see the process through to the end. And any suspect who has the resources to influence the outcome of cases will never set foot in the dock.

In September, a four-year-old girl was raped by a 13-year-old boy. A lawyer will tell you that the girl was defiled. In my opinion, we should call the forceful penetration of a child's sexual organs what it is – rape. I have never understood why the law attempts to sanitise sexual assaults against minors. But I digress.

The girl was raped and in the first instance, the boy confessed to the crime. The matter was reported to a gender officer at the Hardy Police Station in Nairobi. When the police asked him why he raped the child, he said he had been watching pornography and wanted to experiment with it. He was arrested and charges brought against him.

After one mention, a date was set for hearing. On that date, the child's advocate was mysteriously directed to the wrong court. With the girl and her mother, he waited for the case to be called for the better part of the day.

By the time he realised it was not listed on the cause list, the magistrate in the court where the case was actually being heard had already made an adverse ruling. And that was that. The system, sufficiently greased by the young man's family, conspired to deny a child justice.

UN Women statistics show that around 120 million girls worldwide (slightly more than one in 10) have experienced forced intercourse or other forced sexual acts at some point in their lives. This four-year-old girl just became one of them.

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The case, which seems pretty straightforward, is still being argued and our only hope is that justice will be served. When an innocent child is literally denied her day in court, it is not hard to see how an adult, after being sexually and physically assaulted in broad daylight, would be dumped by the roadside on an avenue that never leads to redress.

Just three days ago, a fresh video emerged showing a naked woman being violated in a matatu. I did not watch it. Nevertheless, within minutes, it had gone viral. I do admit that we need to know the true scale of sexual violence if we are to take any effective steps to control it, but we cross a line when we begin to view these videos and images purely out of morbid curiosity.

Watching a video for the sole purpose of lamenting about it on social media, and then pontificating about the sad state of affairs is of zero value. As a matter of fact, every time you click on a link to watch a woman being degraded, you might as well be doing the degrading yourself.

In Japan, the Interior ministry has slashed its security budget because the crime rate is almost negligible. Scenes like we have witnessed in Nairobi recently do not happen in Japan. Why? Because the Japanese have made a conscious effort to teach their children how to treat each other honourably and with respect. They teach them good values right from kindergarten, just like they teach them reading, writing and arithmetic. And they have been doing it for centuries.

Forget parties and politics; that is the kind of regime this country needs. Somewhere along the line, we abandoned our children to a corrupt and amoral society. If we don't arrest the situation now, this and coming generations will be well and truly lost.