Act now to end violence against women
Kenya has recently witnessed an increase in cases of gender-based violence against women and children.
Women continue to face life-threatening situations in their daily social, educational, economical and personal lives from acts of violence, when in most of the time the perpetrator is known to them. According to Amnesty Kenya, 108 Kenyan women were killed in 2019, while 40 per cent of women experience domestic violence in their lifetime.
According to The Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS) 2014, 14 per cent of women and six per cent of men aged 15 – 49 reported having experienced sexual violence at least once in their lifetime.
The Government of Kenya has enacted several laws and has policies and regulations to prevent and control forms of violence against women and children, including the Bill of Rights within The Constitution of Kenya (2010) and the Sexual Offences Act (2006).
In Article 27, the Constitution mentions that every person is equal before the law and has the right to equal protection and equal benefit of the law. Kenya has recently witnessed an increase in cases of gender-based violence against women and children. We have an opportunity to make a difference for the better. Each of us has a role to play.
According to the Ministry of Health, between mid-March and June 2020, 5000 rape cases were reported. It was seven per cent increase for the same period in 2019. 70 per cent of victims were girls under 18. Five per cent were men. 95 per cent of the perpetrators were men. Rape culture is a social environment that allows sexual violence to be normalised and justified, fueled by the persistent gender inequalities and attitudes about gender and sexuality.
Women don’t get raped because they were drinking or took drugs. Women do not get raped because they were not careful enough or walking at night with their dresses and skirts. Women get raped because someone raped them.
Questions that would make you a rape apologist; where is the proof?; why didn’t you call the police then?; that doesn’t count as assault; he is not normally like that; move on, that was a long time ago; why were you drinking?; well, you should not have gone to that party; you are over-reacting, among many others. Just Stop victim blaming women who experience violence. These perpetrators should be jailed.
- Alvin Mwangi, Nairobi
