INT’L WOMEN’S DAY: Sexual Violence on the Rise in Kenya

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Joyce Mulama

NAIROBI, Mar 6 2004 (IPS) - Rights groups this week unveiled a plan to reduce sexual violence in Kenya within two years. More than 90 percent of all violence in Kenya is committed against women, says ‘Medico-Legal Network on Gender-Based Violence in Kenya’, which comprises 16 bodies, most of them women.

A large percentage of this violence is related to rape, says the Network.

Under the plan, titled ‘Towards Stopping Sexual Violence in Kenya’, the Network seeks to reduce sexual violence by Dec. 31, 2005.

The strategy, which comes ahead of the International Women’s Day to be observed on Mar. 8, includes tightening legislation around sexual violence.

Women’s groups have often attributed the weak laws in their country’s statutory books to the increase in sexual crimes.

“For example, the Act, which was passed recently, is too flawed and has no teeth to adequately punish offenders or deter would-be criminals,” Mary Njeri, of the ‘Coalition of Violence Against Women’, told IPS this week.

The law, she says, does not outline the minimum sentence for an offender. “This is unfortunate because minimum sentence has been left at the discretion of the magistrate who can decide to jail a rapist for only a few hours,” she added.

Njeri was referring to the ‘Criminal Law Amendment Act’, which the government approved last July. The Act tightened penalty for rape and defilement of women and girls from a maximum of 14 years imprisonment to a maximum of life sentence. But it remains silent on the minimum sentence.

Statistics from the Kenya Medical Association (KMA) show that rape cases have been on the increase every year. “The number has been increasing from 1,500 to 2,000 per year in each (of the country’s eight) provincial hospital,” says Dr. Odongo Odiyo, who is in charge of the Association’s HIV/AIDS department.

Last year Attorney General Amos Wako announced that rape cases had been increasing steadily since 2001. In 2001 and 2003 they stood at 1,987 and 2,055 respectively.

In a bid to look after the women, rights groups are seeking to establish 15 shelters; one in each of the country’s eight provincial hospitals and seven in district hospitals by the end of 2005. At the moment there are only three centres supported by KMA in the whole country, according to Odiyo.

The centres will offer counselling and treatment to rape survivors.

Odiyo hopes that the women in rural areas will also benefit from the services. And that the shelter will encourage communities to report rape cases.

He regrets that out of the 1,500 to 2,000 women raped every year, less than 30 percent report their ordeals.

Campaigners have criticised police officers for their insensitivity when handling rape complaints. There have been incidents whereby policemen manning desks have allegedly turned away victims by telling them that they provoked the rapists.

“I was raped 10 years ago by a person I knew very well. He was in the company of three men who all took part in raping me. The man laughed and threatened to kill me if I made any sound,” the woman told IPS, showing off a disfigured finger that was smashed during her struggle to escape.

“I gathered strength the following day and went to the nearest police station to report. I had bruises all over my face. You cannot believe it but the officer at the counter joked that I had a good time doing it with all four men,” she added, sobbing.

Women’s groups are demanding that “special gender desks be established at all police stations to enable survivors report the crime in privacy to officers who are trained to interview and investigate such offence.”

They also want the long-awaited Affirmative Action (AA) Bill to be passed so that more women can be elected to decision-making positions, especially parliament. “This is important because parliament is where laws are made. If we have more women there, they will sponsor laws that will ensure that women are protected from acts of violence including rape,” said Wambui Kanyi of ‘Collaborative Centre for Gender Development’, a Nairobi-based non-governmental organisation.

The Bill was brought to parliament in 2000. If passed, it will, among other things, increase the number of women legislatures. Of the 222 members of parliament, only 18 are women, the highest number in the history of Kenya.