Violence and women in Kenya
Looking at the current outbreak of violence in Kenya, and thinking about who knows how to end the violence, one should consider that Kenya has two Nobel Peace Price winners.
One is the well known founder of the Green Belt Movement- Prof. Wangari Maathai. She wrote a comment in the Guardian today titled “Time to show greatness”. After explaining the background of the previous election, the disappointment in the fight for a constitution, she calls upon the civil society of Kenya:
“Even as political leaders play their role, citizens should refrain from violence. All 42 communities in Kenya are bound by geography and history to live as neighbours. Killing, destroying property and displacing our brothers and sisters creates a legacy that will haunt our children and their children. Let us stand up for each other, irrespective of our ethnic backgrounds and political persuasions. Injustice to one is injustice to all of us. If we, individually and collectively, are not the conscience of our country, then who is?”
The other Kenyan nobel peace prize winner is the Dekha Ibrahim Abdi, winner of the 2007 Alternative Nobel Peace Price, a prize given out to honour those “working on practical and exemplary solutions to the most urgent challenges facing the world today”. The Jury commended her “for showing in diverse ethnic and cultural situations how religious and other differences can be reconciled even after violent conflict, and knitted together through a cooperative process that leads to peace and development“. Dekha Abdi’s knowledge and work is most important for Kenya now, more than ever. She showed that it is possible to restore peace. It is a slow process and it takes a lot of patience, nevertheless it is possible. You only wished people would have listen to what is a true Kenyan heroines.
Another brave Kenyan woman is the human rights activist Gladwell Otieno. She read a manifest from several activists at the Grand Regency Hotel in Nairobi on Saturday. She stated 11 demands, among them preparation for a new election, asking foreign governments not to acknowledge Kibaki as a President and not to give out visas to members of the government or their families, in order to prevent them from running away with State money. Gladwell Otieno became famous by fighting corruption and naming names of those with big off-shore accounts. She was pushed to resign as the as executive director of Transparency International (Kenya) by leading members of TI Kenya, who had close bonds with the Kibaki administration (truly one of the darkest chapters of TI’s history.)
It would be easy to continue with this list of Kenyan women having the courage and knowledge to improve the situation in Kenya and it sure is not the lack of trying that prevents their ideas from succeeding.
In almost every violent conflict, women suffer most. It was no surprise that most people killed in the church in Eldoret were women and children. Violation of women’s rights has been a huge problem even in times of peace in Kenya. Within this current conflict situation, rape is being used as weapon, one that destroys women’s lives and their families.
It is of importance that these atrocities towards women are not only attributed to the times of conflict, but to be mapped as they occur and not forgotten and charges brought against those that committed them. There, for instance, has been little coverage of the pre-election violence against women.
The number of women running for Parliament was as big as never, but only a little bit more than a dozen women were elected, less than in the last election. Even two weeks before the election the TV Station Al-Jazeera reported at least 255 cases of assaults against women in connection with the election campaign, leading to exactly 0 charges. (This fact alone is reason enough not to call this election fair.)
Al-Jazeera about violence against Female Candidates during the election campaign aired on the 14th of December 2007
One of the reasons for this violence against female politicians is the persistence of an extremely patriarchal political system since the independence. The system of men (old) taking over power from even older men who are not ready for change (Kenyatta was succeeded by his Vice president Moi, Moi by his Vice president Kibaki, e.t.c) Odinga, who wants to break this monotony and promises change is a serious threat to the seemingly established system. With truly democratic elections the leadership of old men has a lot to lose with more than 50% of the potential voters being women.
It would be encouraging to know that the voices already raised by these women of distinction, voices of credibility, voices that have been appreciated and rewarded by the rest of the world, are not ignored by the people they are now addressing.
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Thank you for the article. As long as there are people like Dekha Ibrahim Abdi, there is hope for Kenya.
Comment: Martha – 08. January 2008 @ 2:55 am
I was looking on the web for the statment which was introduced by Gladwell Otieno and the 11 point that she were proposing, but I did not find it. Does anyone have the Text?
Comment: Mkb – 08. January 2008 @ 11:40 am
Following the pre-election media in Kenya and Internationally, I did not here about the assults of female candidate. It is a shame, that it was not covered by the media.
I already thought about Dekha Ibrahim Abdi as a perfect mediator. Unfortunally you are right, the “old men” would not allow this.
In fact the best solution for Kenya would be President Dekha Ibrahim Abdi of an interim goverment with new Elections to come.I wouldn’t even mind if Kibaki, Odinga and Kalonzo would be Vice-Presidents under her.
Let’s start the campaign: Dekha Ibrahim Abdi for President!!!
Comment: Lisa – 08. January 2008 @ 11:51 am
Yes, I agree, Dekha Ibrahim Abdi for President!
Comment: JoMo – 10. January 2008 @ 12:28 am
[...] Eyes on Kenya picks three different videos to showcase women´s situation in conflict: First, the clip you´ll see here, of Dekha Ibrahim Abdi, 2007 Alternative Nobel Peace Prize winner and her story on how she´s brought together different tribes to agree on peace instead of fighting for the preciously few water resources, then, the two part Al-Jazeera video report of at least 255 cases of assaults to women, related to the election campaign, with 0 charges to the accused, showing that in the areas of women´s rights, there´s still a long path ahead. [...]
Pingback: Global Voices Online » Kenya: Moving images of unrest and hope – 10. January 2008 @ 8:00 am
[...] but either way, evidence of brutal violence continues to emerge, both in terms of killings and of violence against women and girls, and there’s news of an impending health crisis. For a quick tour d’horizon, including [...]
Pingback: Kenya in crisis: a search for citizen cameras… « The Hub: Upload It : See It : Share It : Take Action – 10. January 2008 @ 9:47 am
from Fahamu’s (http://www.fahamu.org/) Action Alert Page: http://www.pambazuka.org/actionalerts/comments/602/
Call for help in setting up Rape crisis centers
Urgent Action Fund-Africa has supported The Nairobi Women’s Hospital to set up 4 crisis response centres (Women’s Gender Recovery Unit s) in Mathare, Huruma, Jamhuri Park and Kibera to provide , shelter, security, and more importantly medical and psychological care to rape victims who are unable to access the services because the informal settlements have been sealed off by security personnel and violent protestors. The hospital is now FULL , it has dealt with 19 cases in the last 24 hours. There are 75,000 displaced people in Jamhuri park alone, majority of whom are women and children. Total numbers of displaced Kenyans has topped 300,000 and growing daily.
Other contributors to this initiative include St Johns Ambulance and Red Cross who have provided an ambulance and tents respectively. The Red Cross is also providing food to the IDP’s . We are appealing for more funds. We need Kenya Shillings 5.8 million (USD 90,000). UAF-Africa is contributing $10,000. We see the action as contributing to protecting the lives of the most marginalized in our communities; women and girls living in informal settlements. Those who are most vulnerable and subject to gender based sexual violence in this situation of crisis.
If you want to assist, kindly contact
Vicky Karimi or Betty Murungi at
Urgent Action Fund-Africa
Life Ministry Centre
Jabavu Road, Kilimani
PO BOX 53841-00200
Nairobi Kenya
Tel +254 20 2731095
Fax +254 20 2731094
info@urgentactionfund-africa.or.ke or vicky@urgentactionfund-africa.or.ke
or
Lucy Kiamaa at the Nairobi Women’s Hospital
Gender Violence Recovery Centre
Nairobi Women’s Hospital
Argwings Kodhek Road , Hurlingham
P.O. Box 10552 – 00100
Tel: +254 20 2726821/4/6/7, +254 20 2736845
Fax: +254 20 2716651
Email: gvrc@nwch.co.ke or lkiama@nwch.co.ke
Nairobi, Kenya
Posted by Firoze Manji on 01/06 at 10:33 AM
For those wishing to contribute to the appeal for rape crisis centres, the bank details are available from vicky@urgentactionfund-africa.or.ke
Comment: Jannek – 10. January 2008 @ 11:35 am
From BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7181184.stm
“Earlier, police fired tear gas to disperse a group of about 100 women who were protesting about the election. Some of them lay down and stripped to their bras, shouting “Shame on you” at the riot police, reports the Reuters news agency.”
Comment: Jannek – 10. January 2008 @ 4:41 pm
from http://www.ushahidi.com/incident.asp?id=25
ODM women league demonstrators tear-gassed
Police fired tear gas to disperse ODM women league demonstrations in nairobi. Inspite of the fact that it was a peaceful demonstration, a police spokesman justified their actions by citing the ban all demonstrations by the governement
See Pictures:
http://www.news24.com/News24/Gallery/Home/0,,galleries-1-5383,00.html
Comment: Jannek – 13. January 2008 @ 7:50 pm
[...] for the 2002 election. He managed to temporarily disarm Transparency International by pulling the leading figures into his government. And in the same way, he has played the World Bank officials like the Ruler in Ngugi wa [...]
Pingback: Eyes on Kenya » Blog Archive » Eyes on the World Bank and Kibaki’s economy – 14. January 2008 @ 2:29 am
I just came across the post: “Sisterhood is greater than tribe” from Afrofeminizta. http://afrofeminizta.blogspot.com/index.html#5793351249070237198
With all the bad news, it is good to read some words with hope.
Comment: Lisa – 14. January 2008 @ 8:14 pm
[...] Violence against women seems to explode. According to reuters , reported cases of rape and sexual attacks against women have doubled in areas of Kenya hit by political violence amid a climate of impunity for gangs carrying them out, a senior U.N. official said on Tuesday. In an interview with Reuters, Kathleen Cravero, director of the world body’s Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery, called for aid programs in the East African nation to make sure that vulnerable women and girls were protected from attack. “In Nairobi hospital and in the medical centers and hospitals around the areas of greatest violence, the number of rapes and sexual attacks being reported by women and being handled by medical personnel has doubled,” Cravero said. “What that tells us is that we have a very serious problem indeed because only a small percentage of rapes and sexual attacks are ever reported in Kenya or in many other countries.”Cravero stopped short of directly accusing the Kenyan government of ignoring the problem but said the political violence had led to “an environment that is tolerating very high levels of rape and sexual attack against women”. She said she was sure there was targeting of women for political or ethnic reasons although there was no evidence that either side was particularly responsible. But much of the sexual violence was opportunistic, she said.”Gangs find a woman who’s searching for firewood, gangs find a couple of young girls that are fetching water,” Cravero said. “There’s nothing to stop them, there’s a climate of impunity, they’re sure there will be no consequences, so it happens, and this is what we have to stop.” [...]
Pingback: Eyes on Kenya » Habari ya leo - Today’s news from Kenya 01/24/2008 | – 24. January 2008 @ 4:58 pm
[...] protection and security for opposition politicians.Only a few days after Nobel Peace Price winner Wangari Maathai criticized the government for failing to provide security for its citizens, the Minister of [...]
Pingback: Eyes on Kenya » Orange Democratic Movement Member of Parliament David Kimutai Too shot dead by a Police officer | – 31. January 2008 @ 2:09 pm
[...] “Violence and women in Kenya” portraits the Kenyans Prof. Wangari Maathai, Dekha Ibrahim Abdi and Gladwell Otieno and takes a closer look at violence against female candidates in the pre-election period. [...]
Pingback: Background information on the political crisis in Kenya | Eyes on Kenya – 23. February 2008 @ 12:51 am
Killing, destroying property and displacing our brothers and sisters creates a legacy that will haunt our children and their children. Let us stand up for each other, irrespective of our ethnic backgrounds and political persuasions. Injustice to one is injustice to all of us. If we, individually and collectively, are not the conscience of our country, then who is?” — We should always remember this.
Comment: safari – 10. November 2008 @ 5:08 pm