Even with the law in place, babies are still being defiled; grandmas raped, and young women stripped naked in broad daylight for being indecently dressed. Where are we headed? Asks GARDY CHACHA
The images have been played on our screens at prime time news. A woman in Meru hacked to death by her husband, a lady forced to succumb to a man’s raging sexual whims, an octogenarian grandmother too helpless to protect herself from a young man with gothic fantasies, and most recently, a woman in Nyeri powerlessly fighting testosterone-potent men hell bent on stripping her naked, a crime they aptly accomplished.
Even the enactment of the new Constitution has not prevented the kind of atrocities we have witnessed meted against women. What the hell is going on, isn’t the law sufficient enough to protect women?
Mercy Njoroge, a rape victim speaks of her ordeal: “I was from evening classes and reached the estate at around 10pm. I met my attackers at a parking lot and what they did to me is just despicable. I am lucky I never contracted HIV, but the trauma is too much. Three years on, I still attend counselling classes to help me cope.”
Some victims of gender based violence have succumbed to their injuries while others have sunk in massive depression.
Jacqueline Ingutiah, a senior counsel with Federation of Women Lawyers Kenya (Fida) says the law on both sexual offenses and physical abuse is crisp clear that any kind of violence that overrides the rights of a woman — as a human being and as a female — is criminal and punishable by law.
Jacqueline cites Sexual Offenses Act that stipulates a minimum of ten years behind bars for offenders.
“Crimes that men exert on women are propagated by cultures, which are known to censor women as species of the weak gender,” she says.
Criminal offence
“It is unfortunate that it happens that way but hopefully, men who have looked down upon women as objects of vilification will stop or the law will catch up with them.”
Who can’t admit; the shame, the discomfort, the churning mystery, the disgust, the uncouth feeling — the gory scenes of a four-year-old toddler subjected to the ghastly experience of defilement. How insane can it get! Could it be true as many wonder that we are paying good riddance to bad rubbish?
Despite the media covering, with earnest, gender-based violence meted on women, it seems we still have a long way to go. Numbers and statistics are damning: A 2011-2012 report published by the Gender Violence recovery centre (GVRC) indicates that 12 per cent of women in Kenya say that their first sexual encounters were forced against them.
Since 2001, GVRC has counted 21,341 victims it has assisted after some form of gender based violence — 56 per cent being women, 36 per cent girls, five per cent men and three per cent boys.
Daisy Amdany, a law pundit and Community Advocacy and Awareness Trust Executive Director, says any form of assault against a human being is considered criminal within the Penal Code.
“Nobody has the power and right of infringing the rights of women. Men involved in incidences of stripping a woman naked say they were merely teaching her the importance of dressing well; when did unclothing a woman become an acceptable way of expressing displeasure?”
In another study conducted by Fida, 74.5 per cent of the respondents interviewed in Coast, Nairobi, Nyanza and Western provinces indicated that they had been physically abused within their homesteads. The GVRC report also shows that 45 per cent of women between ages 15 to 49 have experienced either physical or sexual violence, with one in five Kenyan women experiencing sexual violence.
Systematically, Daisy bursts the bubble that has been conservatism of culture. She argues: “How were our forefathers and their generations dressed? What about the Pokot and the Turkana? To date, their women are dressed in regalia that expose their upper bodies — including bosoms — and their men accept that as part of their culture. A woman wearing whatever fashion cannot, therefore, be assaulted on the basis of what they wear. Which culture is this that is seeking ‘decency’?
Guise of culture
With current fashion, even men with sagging trousers look uncouth but ironically, no one is undressing them. This is, therefore, just an excuse — it is used by men who want to continue with subjugation of women in the guise of culture.”
Many women are debilitated by men’s selective mistreatment, which has engendered rights bodies and women organisations to safeguard women from painstaking abuse.
Faith Achieng’ in her 20s. opines: “It doesn’t make sense that women are continuously being harassed with all the progress that humanity has made. This shows that our society changes the lens with which it views men when focus turns to women. As a woman, I am against this kind of mistreatment. I wish men would think of their daughters, mothers, or even wives, when they bonk women into destitution. It is so sad.”
Jackline Wanjiru from Nakuru is aghast with how wretched the minds of some ‘uncivilised’ men work. She says it is time men and all humans acquired a sense of thought before action.
“Isn’t it insanity that a man rapes an old woman who is probably three generations ahead of him?” she poses rhetorically.
“A woman is not meant for abuse. Even the good book says that a woman is a helper – not an object to play around with sexually, or in any other way.”
Research by rights bodies indicate that many women who undergo some form of abuse hide and become reluctant to emerge from the abyss fearing stigmatisation. The reasons are not hard to guess. Jacqueline explains that for a woman who has been raped or sexually violated, instead of feeling like a victim, she feels like a criminal. This could be because society considers a rape victim as dirty and disgraceful even to her relatives. She is viewed with condemnation and stigmatised forever.
Natural values
Daisy says everybody should be guided by a sense of morality, which has been captured in the creeds of most religions.
“Article 10 of our Constitution talks about natural values; including non-discrimination and the upholding of human dignity. It should be understood that all persons have freedom to express themselves (even in dressing) in whichever way, provided that they don’t infringe the rights of others in the Constitution,” she says.
Both Daisy and Jacqueline agree that women and men should be bold and graceful in the war to uphold the stature a woman is supposed to have.
Even small mundane things, like teaching growing children how to regard women in the society, will contribute a great deal to the course. This way, all, who in the future will commit violence on a woman, will understand that no one is invincible from natural law.
