Kware: An obscene chain of ignorance, fear, hate and death

But I could not convincingly turn my gaze away from the grizzly discoveries at the Kware dumpsite in the Mukuru kwa Njenga informal settlement in Nairobi. I am sure you are as traumatised as all of us who care are by the unearthing from the dumpsite of ten or even possibly more bodies of apparently murdered women. It is preposterous. It is indecent. It is a glaring obscenity (ni ukware mtupu).

It is a linguistic irony that the scene of the obscenity is called Kware. This, as you can rightly guess, is the Nairobi pronunciation version of “quarry”, the dumpsite being an abandoned stone quarry. How did it become a never-emptied dumpsite? How did the chokoras, who scavenge for their livelihood from such sites, fail to notice or to report the murderers’ dumping activities? These are just two of the myriad questions assailing our minds. Suffice it to admit that a lot of incredible things go on in the so-called informal settlements, a euphemism for slums.

My main concern, however, with the horrifying tragedy is that it is a classic illustration of the dangers of the gender relations weaknesses about which I have been lamenting almost as long as I have been writing this column.

Those of us who care about the woman’s cause have striven, are striving and will keep striving to expose, explain and condemn all cases of discrimination, exploitation and oppression of women that come to our attention.

I have, in my small way, shared with you some of the ugliest instances of toxic masculinity that have come to my attention over the years. Do you remember the cases of the Siaya teacher who was murdered for questioning the results of an election she had supervised, the newly qualified Eldoret doctor hacked to death by a rejected “lover”, or Olympian Agnes Tirop, stabbed to death in her own house in Iten?

Earlier this year, after the so-called “airbnb” murders of high-profile young women, including one of our undergraduates from the JKUAT, I suggested to you that the “ogres”, those cannibalistic creatures of our folkloric imagination, are alive and well.

They hibernate in luxurious apartments and sumptuous hotel rooms, drive around in latest car models and flash huge dollar bundles and sleek credit cards. If you get close to them, they devour you, especially if you are a woman.

There are cynics, especially men, who think and say that we men who espouse the woman’s cause and speak out for it are just pretenders, or that we have “ulterior” motives. I cannot speak for everyone. Nor can I deny my own natural, male interest in and fascination with women. But my feminist inclinations are driven by three main factors.

The first is the conviction that our relationships would be better and happier if we truly recognised and respected each other. Secondly, as a relative of many women, I am anxious and determined to see that my grandmothers, mothers, sisters, daughters, granddaughters and partners get a fair deal in life and do not fall victim to the evils of toxic masculinity prevalent in our society.

Thirdly, at the simple, plain and practical level, I know that denying women full participation in life, simply because they are women, is bad and poor faith, poor politics and poor economics.

I marvel at the brilliance, competence, devotion and sheer achievement of the few empowered women in various fields. Then I wonder at the stupidity and short-sightedness of those who dare deny their daughters and sisters the opportunities available in society, because “women must be kept under control”.

It is like trying to hobble along on one leg, the male one, when you could comfortably stride forward on two, as my colleague and comrade, David Kakuta Mulwa, put it in another context.

Back to the Kware murders, whether they are the act of one demented serial killer or of a gang of perverts, they are the symptoms of a very sick society. It is a society wallowing in ignorance, fear, hate and self-hate and eventually headed towards self-destruction.

I know we are beset by a host of challenges, including such humongous ones as the environment, the economy and governance. Indeed, as the public events of the past few weeks show, we may be teetering on the verge of a paradigmatic shift in all our social organisations.

But the human factor remains paramount in all our ventures and experiments, and the woman factor is also paramount in the human factor. As a teacher, of course, I suggest that we start by “educating” our people, especially the young, in appropriate human relationships, including, crucially, gender relationships. A prominent leader is reported to have said that one does not need three years to specialise and get a degree in Women Studies and Gender Studies.

I have frequently expressed my disagreement with that opinion. As I keep saying, these skills should be lifelong studies, and preferably compulsory for everyone at every stage of life and education.

The femicides, the killing of women simply because they are women, like those at Kware, are not confined to the slums. They cut across all our social classes, and they result from our ignorance of the woman and her needs.

We end up stereotyping them, objectifying them (turning them into mere “things” for our lustful self-gratification) and then, in fear that they might assert their humanity, we harass and persecute them. That is the essence of femophobia, the hatred of women because – they are women. That is only one step away from femicide, killing them because they are women.

Jameni (my brothers), we can do better. May the Martyrs of Kware forgive us.

Prof Bukenya is a leading East African scholar of English and literature. [email protected]