By Henry Owino
Nairobi, Kenya:In the recent past, Kenyans have experienced a spate of intimate partner violence (IPV) across the country sending shock waves to concerned citizens. In fact, social media platforms have become awash with discussions with very little decorum to victims.
It is for this sequence of IPV and continues messages of doom and gloom in social networking sites that Harriet Chigai, the President’s Advisor on Women’s Rights and Gladys Shollei, National Assembly Deputy Speaker led other Kenya women leaders in condemning the recent surge in femicide cases.
The team of women rights convened a press conference on Friday 19 January in a hotel in Nairobi where they addressed a battery of journalists on rising cases of IPV. The group spoke strongly in condemning IPV of any form as a heinous act that must not be tolerated.
Chigai at the same time cautioned the public to exercise sensitivity when talking about the cases on social media platforms. She condemned Kenyans’ habit of shaming victims on online sites and called for establishment of a policy to regulate social media platforms.
Chigai regretted that the postings on social media have been painting a grim picture of IPV. And now with the increasingly chilling phenomenon of technology-facilitated gender-based violence online, the situation is even dire.
“Women’s rights are human rights, murder should not be justified on the basis of gender as online platforms judge victims,” Chigai affirmed. There is a need for provision of safe havens to harbor survivors who come forward for assistance as gender-based violence cases,” she suggested.
Chigai said that her office has an open-door policy and asked the public to come forward with information that may advance the investigations in the recent IPV cases. She also called for amendments on legislations to regulate social media as it has been used to perpetrate some of the recent IPV cases.
Shollei, on her part, advises the public to exercise caution when discussing the IPV cases in social media. She said the fight to end gender-based violence (GBV) and IPV is a collective responsibility and every individual should play their part effectively.
The deputy speaker said legislation of IPV into the Kenya law including the penal code will help bridge the gap and address the abuses. She anticipated that the loophole may be used by perpetrators of IPV to reoffend the survivors.
The group also blamed security agencies for not taking reports on IPV and femicide matters seriously. The Policare and GBV desks in police stations are not enough but police should investigate such matters and perpetrators of crime arrested for justice.
The rights group challenged the national government to address IPV as a criminal offense not as a social or domestic affairs problem as always dismissed. This comes in the wake of recent murders of Starlet Wahu and Rita Waeni among others
Last Wednesday 17 January, Raila Odinga, Azimio leader had weighed into the matter saying the abnormality of the murders cannot become the new norm. He emphasized that the ugly scourge of the murder of women is now a national emergency.
“It is sad to see a troubling increase in the deaths of young women, leaving a trail of grief for families and friends,” Raila said.
“The surge in femicide cases in our country is both shocking and disheartening. It demands immediate action from all necessary security agencies. It’s deeply troubling that the government of the day has stayed silent,” he criticized.
The Kenya Women Parliamentary Association (KEWOPA) had also called on President William Ruto to declare femicide and other forms of GBV a national disaster.
KEWOPA in a statement on the same Wednesday further called on the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and the Inspector General of Police to speed up investigations into all ongoing femicide cases and bring perpetrators to book.
Senior politicians have also urged the government to scale up measures to protect women in the country. The politicians want the State to ensure justice is served to the victims and their families.
“In the last few days, we have witnessed an unprecedented increase in the atrocious killings of women across the country,” they said.
