Femicide is not homicide: Urgent, specific actions need to be taken

Kenyan women and human rights organisations match along the streets of Nairobi to protest against the rising femicide cases in the country. [Collins Oduor, Standard]

This year's 16 days of activism against gender-based violence campaign seems set to take on greater significance. With the substantial spike in femicide cases, it is time for new agencies and actors to join the faithful feminists who raise awareness and demand that men stop killing women.

Femicide is very different from homicide. Femicide is the killing of women because they are women, Professor Awino Okech would school us. Treating the deliberate dismembering and demise of women and girls as the usual homicide statistics blurs this rising threat.