Her National Crisis in Kenya
‘Wayward’ women can’t find protection from sexual violence and femicide
**TRIGGER WARNING – Details of sexual and non-sexual violence**
Through the western conceptualisation of feminism, specifically when we’re busy praising ourselves for all the ‘progress’ we’ve made; the denigration of ‘wayward women’ in the context of sexual and non-sexual violence is a notion we’ve deemed to be outlawed in the modern-day context. But as we rest ‘easy’ here, smiles worn across our faces for all of our successes and finding ourselves focusing on ever so pressing issues like the supposed ‘snubbing’ of Barbie at the Grammy’s… we fail to recognise the importance of advocacy for women across the globe facing true subordination. It’s poor enough when we can’t emphasise the ways in which women in our own countries are still very real victims of sexual violence. And yet I find it even worse that we possess alarming indifference to the ways in which women in nations around the world suffer– a reality admittedly caused by a unique set of cultural norms and values but not within the help of our own failure to aid in assistance. Whilst there are innumerable examples to draw from in order to further illustrate my point, todays focus brings us to Kenya; where femicide is currently at its highest rate, where the year after the pandemic saw cases surge.
What’s the crisis?
In an interview streamed by Al Jazeera last month, “Is the Kenyan Government Doing Enough to Act Against Femicide”, advocates against femicide; Njeri Wa Migwi, Martha Mwatha and Stellaj Bosire appeared to shed light on the gravity of this issue. Identified victims; Scarlet Waho and Rita Weni were just two of the fourteen women killed in January of this year in Kenya, further signifying what has been called a ‘national crisis’ by the Human Rights Watch. Martha: the gender program’s coordinator of feminists in Kenya - a movement working for gender justice discusses first the causes of this issue. Njeri: an organizer of a protest-march on Jan 27th and founder of Usikimye, an organisation working to support victims of gender based violence, highlights the missing statistics on femicide in Kenya, and Stella : founder and executive director of the Africa centre for health systems and gender justice provides insight into the sociological factors that give way to a dangerous rape culture and the minimisation of the gravity of femicide.
Despite the failure of western media outlets to provide coverage on this issue, women have been taking to social media to raise awareness about concerns surrounding femicide, with many admitting they feel unsafe both amongst strangers in passing, as well as within their marriages. There is a call for government intervention here, with a failure from those in charge to pay attention to up to five-hundred murders that have taken place since 2016 alone.
Africa Uncensored reported a story about a woman named scarlet who was murdered on the 3rd of January in Nairobi’s southern estate. The prime suspect was a man seen accompanying her on CCTV footage, though to my knowledge he has yet to face prosecution.
Unique cultural factors
According to Martha who began her activist journey in 2019 following her own brutal experience with domestic violence; we have to acknowledge firstly that Kenya is a largely patriarchal society allowing misogyny to go unchecked. Those amongst the male population have designated themselves as the ‘judges & executioners of morality’. We’re seeing how women deemed wayward by wider society, for their failure to succumb to sexual and domestic pressures are found left without any kind of defence in the event that they’re faced with the desire for domination by the men they’re interacting with. “Women are supposed to be submissive, not supposed to push back. But women are now starting to reclaim their voices, autonomy, agency, choice”, she says. This justified pushback of course becomes upsetting for societies that rely on female subordination. But nevertheless, because by now we know the value in protesting as far as promoting change; women everywhere are asking themselves ‘How can we combat this?’
Stella notes that the perception here is that a lot of these women were women trying to ‘extort men’ (as all ‘wayward women’ do). But this perception of course doesn’t align with reality. Women of all occupations are facing a very real threat. Students are being murdered, women are being murdered in their villages, and the cases vary each time, but there is consistency amongst these. Intimate partner violence is being perpetrated by individuals with close relations to all kinds of women.
30% of all Kenyan women by the age of 15 face some form of violence as a result of their status of women.
Al Jazeera
Stella and her peers are working tirelessly to first debunk the narrative proposed by politicians where women are being assumed in a sense ‘deserving’ of murder in the context of them who are putting themselves in danger. But we have to ask ourselves how women are able to escape danger within a context that normalises it. It seems as though there isn’t room for women to ‘protect themselves’ here, especially when we’re noticing that women of all demographics are facing femicide.
For example, we are also seeing significant rises in cases of lesbian women being murdered. Sheila’s story tells a tale of one of the most gruesome murders to date, and I’m not going to mince words here in a misguided attempt to dress up nicely such a devastating occurrence. Sheila’s body was found cut up, stabbed multiple times, and unfortunately this isn’t the only case we’ve seen that indicates an insidious hatred for femininity; specifically against women who’s orientation deems them particularly un-malleable by the typical constraints of gender expectations. Erica is the name of a woman murdered; whose body was dumped in the streets of Nairobi, discarded by society alongside other women who aren’t protected. Worse still is that naturally there are many women we don’t hear about because of the concealing of these cases by the families of victims as well as policing institutions. This here shows us first-hand how the normalisation of gender-based violence gives way for it’s cover-up. Where women aren’t even recognised as facing imminent danger, and those acknowledged are often victim blamed, there is an essence of shame that theoretically comes with reporting these cases. Communities here tend to simply bury their dead, as opposed to reporting the cause of it, and most investigations fail to find the perpetrators.
In the Al Jazeera interview, Njeri highlighted additional reasons as to why cases aren’t being reported. Whether the incidences occurred within the context of marriage, (an age old loophole for abuse) or whether they had been beaten and died on the way to the hospital, many cases go un-reported as femicide. More specifically, from a medical perspective, Stella notes the failure of forensic pathology here. There is first and foremost no intentionally around recording this data and specifically the deaths that occur. Till this day, there isn’t a centralised data based to collect femicide cases, and so there is no prioritisation of the survival of women going for care. Stella emphasises that there should be more of a focus on prevention, and the rhetoric around women is a huge part of the problem.
We need to remove the price tag from female security…
I still don’t know why women have to trade their bodies in exchange for their safety?
“Essentially they’re saying theres no issue around consent there is no issue around you making a decision around your own bodily autonomy, they have access to your body, but this is not a new attitude”.
- Stellah Bosire
The Commodification of women is a huge issue here. In a video discovered of men protesting the protest, one man shared his plights having taken place on a date with a woman recently, where pizza worth $3 was seen comparable to the value of the woman in front of him.
“We are going to kill you (…) I cannot take you to pizza, you eat my money (…) You women are going to die let me tell you”.
Unfortunately, the men seen with an aversion to female justice are mere microcosms of wider societal attitudes. Stellah highlights the ‘layers’ present – which are so thick with pervasive attitudes against women starting with the individual and rising up within institutions. In an article I wrote on here named “What we Have is Not Enough - I mentioned how we must look at rape culture as being self-instantiating.
“We should in reality imagine rape culture, alongside everything else as being self-instantiating. It is easiest in this instance to picture a circular diagram, where rape culture is first born from misogyny and the normalisation of sexual violence and finds its way into legislature, through the minds of those with substantial power, proceeding to survive further through the acceptance of those laws by the general population, helping to justify misogyny and so the cycle continues…”
The intersections of sex and class are also incredibly relevant here. Reports from Kenya demonstrate what sociologists have theorised for decades. Men in lower social economic statuses, as a result of feeling subordinate and emasculated in their stations are seeking to regain power through sexual dominance; a perfectly crafted tool for gaining power in societies that excuse sexual violence. But with these revelations it is also important to make one thing abundantly clear. Men of lower socio-economic status aren’t the only ones committing these crimes. The likelihood is that their lack of visibility within the public eye allows them freedom to reveal sentiments that men of all socio-economic classes poses, where their stations forbid them from revealing true intent. In addition to this, we have to realise that crimes committed by those with more social and economic capital are covered up far more easily, excusing them from being included in the data.
Can we find resolve?
Where male sexual dominance is considered an overarching problem here, we can see where an attempt to include men within the movement against femicide could have a large-scale impact.
But how do we go about making men part of the movement? Martha says struggles are interconnected, because as previously mentioned ; the government oppresses men and men oppress women. Subsequently, women oppress their children, and children grow up to abuse and further perpetuate violence. ‘In consolidating our voices is how we promote change.’ Martha claims. She proceeds to state a case wherein a child is beaten to death in school by his peers and highlights gender-based violence as a large part of the problem, and I have to suspect she’s entirely correct. Once you discard women in a society, especially where women are ‘responsible’ for raising children, you essentially discard an entire society.
She also makes clear what feminists have been saying for years following the accusatory tones from those who assume an essence of misandry in the fight for female liberation. ‘This not an ‘anti-men’ agenda’ she says.
Stella also provides some insight as far as searching for solutions. She asserts that we must stop centralizing the conversation around victims (these ‘Wayward women’) and shift our focus back to perpetrators. ‘Stop questioning victims, start questioning perpetrators’, she notes. She also argues for the vital importance of having a legislation that specifically discusses femicide. The Kenyan government has been seen ignoring the issue entirely based on their failure to act here. Stella highlights that whilst laws are ‘perfectly written’ in advocacy for women; these laws are only good if they work and if there is a goodwill to make sure they work. Disappointingly, from the mouths of female politicians – bouts of victim blaming are still being spouted, and so representation in this way has proven useless, leaving no room for retribution. But ultimately, the government has a duty to formulate a much more robust system.
In June 2021, the Government of Kenya made a bold declaration to end Gender-Based Violence including sexual violence in the nation by 2026 this was accompanied by a commitment to intensify its campaigns to end these violations through a series of 12 commitments that would bring an end to the systemic hurdles that allow GBV to thrive.
Kenya News Agency
In the event that there are those of you having read todays article left wondering how this is relevant, I have a few ending notes.
Primarily, I find that observing crises as they occur halfway across the world help us reflect on where our own immediate environments fail. After all, rape culture is not some abstract concept only found in places we deem to be less sociologically advanced. In hearing the stories of women facing subordination outside of our context’s we can see that the commonality of gender-based violence should make it a top concern for those of us who consider ourselves ‘feminists’. I’d ask that you remember Scarlet, Sheila and Erica amongst others. But equally i’d urge you to consider feminist objectives outside of the West, amplifying stories that are in desperate need of exposure,
No woman left unprotected!
(or something less slogan-like)…
Asisa
Sources
https://www.kenyanews.go.ke/youth-use-art-to-raise-awareness-on-gbv/ Youth Use Artwork To Discourage GBV Against Women
As a Kenyan woman, we live in scary times. I saw this as a child in 2013. I saw it as a teen around 2017-2019 and now as a young adult. The narrative is always the same. They were bad women. Thank you for highlighting this issue. We rose and we shall rise until none of us are left.