GSU officers raped us, women tell TJRC

By Peter Mutai

Women who were subjected to rape ordeals allegedly by security agents during the 2007/08 post-election violence narrated their agony to the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC).

The commission was told that officers from the General Service Unit (GSU) raped women and infected them with sexually transmitted diseases.

The women from Kericho District told the commission that the worst form of rape and defilement ordeals occurred in Ainamoi Constituency where GSU officers allegedly raped young and old women indiscriminately.

The proceedings, which were held in camera at the County Council of Kipsigis chambers, were led by presiding chairperson Tecla Namachanja and attended by TJRC commissioners Tom Ojienda, Gertrude Chawatama, Ambassador Berhanu Dinka and Major Gen (Rtd) Ahmed Farah.

They claimed that GSU officers, deployed to the area to search for guns stolen from the Administration Police armory at Ainamoi DO’s office, sexually assaulted women and young girls as they moved from house to house in search of the firearms.

The weapons were stolen by youths who raided the office to protest the killing of Ainamoi MP David Kimutai Too in Eldoret town.

Too was gunned down by a traffic policeman in Eldoret town on January 31, 2008 in unclear circumstances, barely a month after he was elected to represent the area in Parliament.

The women, who were assisted by Kericho-based lawyer Alice Bett, wept uncontrollably while others who were overcome by emotions remained mute.

A mother of three told the commissioners that in some of the homes, GSU personnel manhandled their husbands and chased them away to give room for the officers to sexually abuse the women.

Memorandum

"In some of the houses they (GSU) told them ‘mama ni wetu leo, toka’ (The women are ours today, leave)," a memorandum, also presented to back their evidence, read in part.

The victims said the officers ordered them, at gunpoint, to undress in the presence of their children before sexually assaulting them.

The women said they could not seek treatment since hospitals in the area had been closed following the violence that broke out following the MP’s killing.

"They went through pain and great humiliation. Some of them are living in denial and do not have the courage to go to VCT centres for fear of being disowned. There is need for counselling and rehabilitation of victims of sexual violence," the memorandum stated.