Shame on ‘dishonourable members’ who glorify sexual, ‘gender violence’

Susan Otieno

ActionAid Kenya’s Country Interim Executive Director, Susan Otieno (right), Leah Sang second (right), from Baringo County Drought Management Authority and a section of women from various groups at Tangulbei in Baringo County during a function to mark 16 days of activism on December 09, 2020.

Photo credit: Jared Nyataya | Nation Media Group

What you need to know:

  • We must pay tribute to individuals, the civil society and organisations that have been in the forefront in fighting against all forms of SGBV.
  • It is time to shame and reject individuals who come in the way of progress and efforts to rid of all forms of violence against women and girls. 

Last week was one of the most difficult ones for Teresa in recent times. Although related encounters have almost defined her life since she started running a safe house for sexually abused girls aged between 3-14 years, this particular case has been quite a challenge. 

For the whole week, it was nightmares for one of the girls who had not slept a wink. The little girl would wake up screaming, sweating and terribly shaken. She had been having terrible nightmares of the man who had raped her, ‘charging at her with a knife’. In addition, the safe house is grappling with another equally sad case of a 14-year-old recently rescued from a sexually abusive father. 

As a result of the violation, the minor has become suicidal and the very idea that she could be pregnant from this defilement makes her mental situation worse. 

Like her others in similar situations, she is undergoing counselling. Recently, the Nation ran an interview with Ms Edith Murogo who runs The Talia Agler Girls Shelter in Kiambu County, in which she recounted her experience in taking care of dozens of girls, particularly victims of defilement and rape. 

Pro-life doctors

She recounted heart-breaking tales of the sexually abused girls in need of urgent rescue. I have listened to similar stories from Dr Jean Kaggia, a leading gynaecologist who runs a rescue centre for victims of sexual abuse. 

Dr Kaggia and a team of pro-life doctors run the Rescue Kiota shelter in Murang’a. Here, they take in pregnant girls and help them until delivery. They then take the young mothers and their babies to other safe houses.

Anyway, listening to the three women recount the experiences of these girls – the inhumane treatment, indignity and cruelty that they have been subjected to by individuals, some close family members, is traumatising. 

If the mere listening of such stories can have such an unnerving consequence on the listener, what effect then does such dehumanising acts have on the victims, and especially children? 

This week, the country was greeted with horrifying reports of a 22-year old man from Kisii who raped his elderly mother and later killed her as he tried to force her to sell the family’s land.

On the same day, there were equally shattering reports from Kirinyaga County of a so-called church elder who has impregnated his two daughters aged between 14 and 16.

These distressing reports are just a drop in the ocean of SGBV cases across the country. It tells of how deeply broken our social structures are. 

Mending broken system

As such, it obviously calls upon the society and more so its leadership, to be in the lead in mending the broken system and ensure that girls and women at risk of SGBV are protected and communities sensitised and empowered to be able to do so. 

This is why we must pay tribute to individuals, the civil society and in particular organisations that have been in the forefront, tirelessly working with communities in fighting against all forms of SGBV.

That’s why it pains to see political leaders spewing obscene utterances that they think are funny because they appear to excite their audience, when in essence this unbecoming behaviour only serves to justify sexual violence against women and girls.

It is time that such leaders are called out and made to account for their inappropriateness. It is time to shame and reject individuals who come in the way of progress and efforts to rid of all forms of violence against women and girls. 

Leaders, politicians or otherwise, must strive to do better and lead from the front.