Recently, someone shared a post in a high school group I am in, for context, I was in an all girls high school so everyone in the group is female. It was basically a post calling on parents to make sure girls dress decently during the holidays, because that way, they would not be mistaken by men for being older and then…you know the rest.
Now this group consists of multiple generations and backgrounds so the responses were interesting. The reassuring thing was by the end of the discussion, it was clear that the idea that women or girls invite rape by how they dress was a redundant argument. The poster was unable to explain how 70 year old grandmothers and three year olds still experience sexual violence. Also, where is the same energy when it comes to the perpetrators.
But this is a familiar pattern in Kenyan discourse about violence against women. Almost 90 per cent of the time, you will find a sizeable number of people in the comments leaning towards victim blaming, even as they offer advice. When a Kenyan university student was hacked to death by a young man in front of her school, there was the widespread “advice” offered to women, don’t accept gifts from men, don’t lead men on, but no advice offered to young men in terms of the entitlement or sexual proprietorship when it came to the body of another human being. When women were getting stripped on matatus, the conversation was on dressing decently and not on respecting body autonomy. The list is long and there is always a counter solution that inadvertently places the onus on the victim.
Murder of female Athletes
The horrific murder of Ugandan runner Janet Cheptegei, 33, revealed a pattern of gender based violence involving women runners. In April 2022, athlete Damaris Mute Mutua, 28 was strangled to death in Iten and in October 2021, runner Agnes Tirop was found stabbed to death, also in Iten. In the same year Edith Muthoni was found with her throat slit in Nairobi, her husband Kennedy Nyamu was the main suspect. Justice is yet to be served as Mutua’s boyfriend at the time, fellow athlete Eskinder Hailemaryam Folie who was allowed to compete before he absconded to Ethiopia and is still at large. Tirop’s husband and manager, on the other hand, was released on bail. Whether or not there will be justice for the late Cheptegei remains to be seen.
These attacks are happening within a wider context of increased femicide cases in Kenya. In January this year, thousands of women from all walks of life took to the streets in different counties across Kenya raising awareness on the alarming rate of female deaths in the hands of men, most of whom are known to them and could be partners, former partners or family members.
Intimate partner violence
According to a study by UC Davies, men assault and kill their wives for attempting to leave or leaving:
“Homicidal husbands are often noted to have threatened to do exactly what they did should their wives leave them and they often explain their homicides as responses to the intolerable stimulus of their wives departure”.
Other reasons include suspected infidelity, attempts to control or limit female autonomy. Further, persons suffering from delusional or morbid jealousy are abnormally preoccupied with sexual fidelity which in turn results in violent inclinations or severe depression. Usually, it is the latter.
In Kenya, The African Data Hub’s findings showed that “in 75% of cases, killings were committed by a person who knew the murdered woman – an intimate partner, relative or friend. Nearly two-thirds of perpetrators were currently or had previously been in an intimate relationship with the victim. Husbands, then boyfriends being the biggest culprits. In only about 15% of cases, the woman was killed by a complete stranger.
Similarly, a 2023 report, UN women that reported five key findings about femicide echoed this, the report found that:
- Women and girls are most likely to be killed by those closest to them
- Femicide is a universal problem
- The true scale of femicide is most likely higher
- Some groups of women and girls face greater risk
- Femicide can and must be prevented
Justice for victims and survivors
There is a need to see justice being served when it comes to gender based violence and we can start by breaking the silence around domestic violence and femicide, community sensitisation and mobilisation, engaging leaders in all spheres, prioritising the needs of survivors and more. Blaming the victim or relying on the trope of ‘not all men’ has never been effective, it is time for real and long lasting action.
Sites and data: