How 10 women turned Kenya's darkest election violence into a story of glory

Manyatta, Kisumu County buzzes with late afternoon energy as we make our way through the slum. The air is thick with the aroma of sizzling street foods, as a handful of women seated by the dusty roadside, tend to their wares - fresh fruits and vegetables, while others huddle in animated groups, their voices carrying snippets of conversation about life in the densely populated slum.

Our path leads us to a modest tin-roofed house nestled in the heart of the slum. Inside the dimly lit room, 10 middle-aged and young women work with practiced hands, their fingers dancing across materials as they weave mats and string colourful beaded bracelets.

Some bend intently over a well-worn table, measuring cloth with careful precision. The sharp scent of freshly made liquid soap wafts from plastic containers stacked nearby. In one corner, a bulging sack of sanitary towels awaits distribution to underprivileged school girls in the community.

The tin-roofed building, with its walls echoing whispered stories of pain and triumph, is where the women group, known as Tuungane Survivors Group not only make a living, but has also become a sanctuary for healing.

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We learn from the group chairlady Roselyn Otieno that the members are survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) who are now working towards achieving one major goal, economic empowerment.

"I call this my second home. The women here are my sisters. It is here that I learnt that abuse is never the end of the world. What matters is how you pick up and move on. Life has to continue," says one of the members.

These women are no longer hurting, they are GBV survivors who chose to rise beyond their tears and pain and are now out to conquer. They have a major aim of raising up stronger women in the society through economic empowerment.

"We have healed and picked up our pieces, we no longer cry about what happened because we believe that we have conquered," says Mercy Achieng', one of the survivors.

Mercy is one of the sexual gender-based violence (SGBV) survivors of the 2007 post-election violence in Kisumu.

As we settle, she shares a rape event that changed her life. Just after the release of the presidential results that did not sit well with the locals from Kisumu, the lake side city had turned violent.

It was at the same time that Mercy was also leaving a nearby trading centre headed for home. That evening, the city was quiet. Most of the slum dwellers had retreated back to their homes early after a series of running battles with anti-riot police.

Mercy remembers meeting three men who blocked her path. Meanwhile, there was no one around to help. At first, she thought the men were only here to rob her but this was not the case. The three were not in need of her money or belongings. The three forcefully removed her clothes and pushed her to the ground, raping her severally before taking off.

"After what happened, I could not go to the hospital or report the case due to fear of stigma," says Mercy who would later learn that she was pregnant with her third child.

The next nine months had been tough for the single mother. Not even once did she ever attend Antenatal Care (ANC) clinics or sought help from a health provider. It also took the help of a local paralegal to ensure that she did not take away her life. Luckily, the baby was born at a health facility healthy and sound.

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"Even after childbirth, I hated my baby so much that I was always ready to scold or punish her at any provocation. What pained me most was the fact that I did not know who the father was," says Mercy.

This had gone on until 2019 when she was enrolled under a guidance and counselling program that helped her accept the now 17-year-old daughter. The high school student, she says, has now turned out to be her favourite child.

Akoth*, not her real name, yet another survivor says she also met her abusers a couple of days after the release of the 2007 general election. The mother of two was by then living with her children while her husband was out of the city due to the nature of his job.

One night, amid the chaos, three men had broken into her house while blinding her with torch light. Her mouth had also been blocked to ensure she could not scream to alert the neighbours. "I was raped by the two men. My neighbours only came to my rescue when I finally got a chance to scream when the man holding my mouth let go," says Akoth.

In 2017, yet again after the release of presidential results, she was walking home from work one late evening in September when two men blocked her way. They tore her clothes and one of them raped her. Akoth says a motorcycle rider who was coming towards their direction had scared the two perpetrators who took off.

She would later be rushed to a health facility for medical attention. She had, however, kept the happenings to herself due to the fear that no one would believe her. For months, Akoth was hurting. She also vowed never to engage in any other business due to fear that the event would repeat itself.

In 2019, she joined Lucy together with several other women under a counselling and training program offered by Kisumu Medical and Education Trust. Apart from offering psychosocial support, the women had also been trained to start up various businesses to support themselves.

"We were trained and closely monitored by Patricia Orao who has since moved to Stada, a non-governmental organisation supporting women rights," says Akoth.

Amid the training, however, Akoth says a number of women who were still afraid of facing stigma dropped out of the training. This reduced the number of the survivors in the training program to ten. The women would also be invited to attend training offered by different organisations on learning more about GBV and how to seek help.

Seven years down the line, Akoth has not only overcome her fears of running a business, but has also established her own catering services business. "During our group meetings, we also encourage each other to start up other side businesses to support our families since the mats are not sold on a daily basis," she says.

She explains that the mats they make are sold on a demand basis, while the prices range from between Sh2500 to Sh500 depending on the size. Once sold, part of the income is channelled to the group accounts savings while the remaining percentage is shared equally among the members.

Group savings

"The same applies to whatever is generated from the sale of liquid soap, bracelets and the clothes tailored in our shop," says the group chairperson Roselyn. She adds, "Members also engage in table banking and the amount is channelled to the group savings with each member allowed to borrow whenever need be. This has really helped us especially in educating our children."

Roselyn says the group holds monthly meetings to take note of the member's progress. After the meeting the member is also required to save at least Sh100. At the end of the year, they share whatever is left in the account according to their shares.

Peris Majuma Amolo, yet another survivor, says through the support from the group, she has been able to establish a moringa spices business in the slum. After saving the group, she went out in search of the moringa supplier from Mombasa who always sends the dried product as a parcel to Kisumu.

Once in Kisumu, Peris says she dries the raw material for a day then grinds it in a blender. The product is then sieved and packed ready for sale. "I package the product in 150 grams' container, which is sold at Sh350," says Peris who says she has been able to establish a market for the product.

She says the product is used as spice while cooking. It can also be used to improve the immune system and in management of blood pressure and diabetes. The proceeds from sale of moringa, she says, are always channelled towards daily household expenses.

"Staying together has made us strong with open minds. Our children are in high school, universities and colleges, all thanks to this business," says Peris.

To maximize on the group earnings, she says each group member has been tasked with training the rest of the team on how to execute their individual businesses. While Akoth has trained a number of members on catering, Peris is currently planning to kick-start classes on moringa production.

Akoth says this has helped her in passing catering opportunities to other members whenever a chance comes by and she is already engaged.

"Initially, I would receive an order to cook in more than three events at a single event and would end up giving the jobs to the group non-members. This is, however, no longer the case since a number of group members are now catering experts.

Emotional abuse

Peris says the group has also made their recovery journey easy since the members are always open to share their challenges while working. Initially, she says, most members would be in tears when sharing their experiences at the hand of their offenders. This she says is due to the fact that the events were still fresh in their minds while most of the members were yet to heal.

The members also say it is through the group that they learnt about the various cases of violence, which they say range from physical, verbal and emotional abuse.

"My advice to fellow survivors is that they need to speak up. Most SGBV cases still go unreported, especially in the slums. Help will only come your way when you open up," says Peris.

From the savings, the members just like Akoth have been able to establish individual businesses including catering, sale of second hand clothes, moringa spice, sewing, selling roasted corn and fries. She says to boost the member's earnings, each of the ten individuals in the group is also required to market the other members' businesses.

Roselyne says the group is also actively participating in anti-GBV activism in Kisumu while working closely with authorities. The group members always attend awareness campaigns in and outside Kisumu, with the hope of ending cases of abuse meted upon women.

In the slums, the group acts as a whistle blower whenever they learn or come across cases of abuse which they say are common in the slums.

"There was a time we went to rescue a child who was being abused by the parents and almost got harmed. Since then, once we identify a case, we engage the local chief and police before approaching the perpetrator," says Roselyne.

The members she says also always organise sanitary towel donations to the slum children with the aim of ending 'sex for pads' in the informal set ups.

"We have recently recruited 16 other GBV survivors within our locality. We have empowered the women and are now planning to open up a tailoring shop for them come January 2024," explains Roselyne.

Apart from economic empowerment, the group is also a place where the women can share their challenges without being judged.

"The members are always free to share whatever they are going through. We have a silent group rule that whatever is said in the group remains with the members," says Roselyne.

Through the group chair, we also learn that the members are now in the process of changing the group's name from Tuungane Survivors Group to Society Women Empowerment Network. The decision, she says, was arrived at by the members who now believe that the group activities are way beyond being just a survivor.

"We have a major rule that whatever is said in the group remains with the members, we are our sister's keepers," says Roselyne.

Meanwhile, the members have raised concerns on the need to include men in cancelling and awareness campaigns to end cases of violence. Peris says a number of men also take time to come to terms with water happened to their wives in cases of rape and need counselling to come to terms with the happenings.

"The men need to undergo counselling and be trained on how to live and handle the GBV survivors," says Peris.

Akoth's* real name hidden to protect her identity

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