Kenya’s epidemic of violence: women prepare to defend themselves

A rise in violence against women in Kenya has prompted many to get ready to fight back, as seen by the Olympic runner who was set on fire by her ex-boyfriend and the young woman who was brutally murdered and mutilated in a short-term rental flat.

According to police statistics, during August and October of last year, at least 97 women were slain in femicides—intentional homicides committed with a gender-related motive—all over Kenya.

According to data gathered by the Africa Data Hub collective from media sources, there were at least 75 femicides in 2023 and 46 the year before, however the police did not give information for previous years.

The current growing trend, according to activists, is evident throughout Kenya’s impoverished informal settlements, where women’s self-defense activities have gained new immediacy.

A 93-year-old woman named Mary Wainaina pounded a punching bag inside a church in Nairobi’s Korogocho neighborhood. She yelled, “No! No! No!” and fled from a classmate who was posing as a male attacker.

The class’s twelve members, who call themselves Cucu Jukinge, which means “Grandma protect yourself” in Swahili, have never found the training to be merely theoretical.

An American couple working with locals began the training about 25 years ago after multiple women were raped and killed in Korogocho, a poor and criminally active area of iron shacks along the Nairobi River.

Between October and December alone, 307 survivors of gender-based violence in Korogocho received support from the non-profit organization Shining Hope for Communities.

Wainaina claimed that she repelled a man who attempted to rape her a few years ago by using her self-defense abilities.

The present spike in violence against women, according to 82-year-old Esther Njeri Muiruri, is as concerning as the wave of attacks that led to the establishment of the class.

A classmate nearby practiced using a cane to strike a potential attacker. “It’s something that scares us, to see young mothers and young women being killed,” she added.

“I FORED YOU TO DO IT.”

According to academics, gender-based violence has long been a significant issue in Kenya due to patriarchal beliefs, socioeconomic disparities, and a lack of adequate legal protections. Spousal rape, for instance, is only punishable under rules pertaining to non-sexual attacks in Kenya because it is not a crime.

According to Alberta Wambua, director of the Gender Violence Recovery Centre, men who are angry about their financial difficulties often attack women, which fuels this type of violence.

Betty Kabari, an End Femicide Kenya activist, told Reuters that Kenyan police frequently ignore reports of gender-based violence because they view them as personal affairs.

“We have a lot of cases of domestic violence where it’s not that the perpetrator is not known,” she stated. “They are known, but the police have no interest in following up.”

According to her family, professional runner Rebecca Cheptegei went to the police at least three times last year to report threats and physical abuse from her ex-boyfriend, who killed her in September by dousing her in gasoline and lighting her on fire.

A police spokeswoman stated in an interview that the Directorate of Criminal Investigations had recently formed a Missing Persons Unit to focus on female homicides and that the police were treating the problem of femicide seriously.

However, activists claim they don’t see any improvement. Last month, hundreds of people demonstrated against femicide in Nairobi, where police used tear gas and detained a number of participants.

Afterwards, the police spokesperson admitted to “mismanagement” in how the protest was handled. The administration established a presidential working group the next week and granted it ninety days to make recommendations on how to deal with femicide.

The Cucu Jukinge stated that they could only rely on themselves for the time being. The 81-year-old Beatrice Mungai remembered the moment a young guy attempted to break into her home.

“I immediately began kicking him three times in the privates. She stated, “He began to scream and beg me not to kill him.” “I told him: I warned you.”