One in five women and girls is a victim of sexual violence in Kenya. That figure, revealed in a 2008/09 Government survey, should have sent alarm bells ringing among all law-enforcement agencies. If it did, they have done a pretty good job of hiding the fact from the public because evidence on the ground suggests that nothing has changed.
Police still continues with its well practised routine of either refusing to investigate rape cases and asking the victims to produce witnesses or doing such a shoddy job that the case can’t stand in a court of law.
The stigma attached to sexual crimes where society in general, not just the police, has perfected the art of blaming the victim, serves to embolden the perpetrators who know they can continue to commit crimes against women without fear of being apprehended, prosecuted or jailed.
But, perhaps, the people most affected by this culture of tolerance for sexual violence are innocent children as stories from various parts of the country testify.
These schoolgoing children, some as young as ten years, are victims not only of their relatives, friends and teachers, but all too often become easy prey for men in uniform whenever they are sent into their area to restore law and order.
Such children, particularly when they end up with unwanted pregnancies, are double victims, as they do not only lose their innocence violently, they more often than not also lose the chance of continuing with their education.
As Kenyans demand and get paid billions of shillings by the British government for atrocities committed against their brothers and sisters fighting for independence, it is important to remember the innocent girls molested by men in uniform who although paid and sent to protect life and property, have at times ended up endangering lives.
The country needs to draw a line in the sand and ensure that perpetrators who stain the honour of the uniforms are, together with the teachers who bring shame to the profession, brought to book for statutory rape — posthaste.
In addition to the statutory jail terms, they should be made to pay for the upkeep of their seed and the loss of future earnings of their victims.
