He threw her on the wall and inched in closer as if to grab her by the neck. His burly build created an intimidating shadow over her existence. His calloused hands reached out to her cotton dress and left pieces of what stood between her and nudity. He threw her on the cold hard floor and followed atop. Her tears and cries grew distant with each thrust that came. She grew weary looking on to the door that was heavily latched. The pain she felt seared through the core of her being. Endless tears would not express the emptiness she harboured within. She took one last look at him. His eyes were closed. He let out an eerie groan and smirked. It was over.
Such a story is known all too well by the girls of the Loikop people commonly known as the Samburu in the Kenyan plains. Some of them view this as culturally correct and even go ahead to fight for the way of the community. Beading is a practice that has been there from time immemorial and even to-date a young Samburu girl can only be married off after going through it. A moran is at liberty to pick a teenager in whom he delights. He places a necklace on her as a sign of booking. The entire community respects his choice and allows him to decide when to have the rendezvous. At no point can the girl interject or give an opinion.
This wayward practice has caught the eye of both local and international press. Not so much because of the practice itself but because of the effects it has caused and what has been done about it. The issue came up last year after watching a local TV station air the work of Josephine Kulea then an energetic 28 year old fighting tooth and nail against the way she was brought up. It was an eye-opener to me. It made me realize how shielded I was from pertinent issues in my own homeland. I am saddened however, to note that I am not the only one who saw this for the very first time.
Josephine found out that the girls not only face the risk of contracting venereal diseases but could also get pregnant. Most of them actually do but even then, culture doesn't go easy on them. The girls aren't allowed to cater for their infants. This makes them so desperate that they go to lengths to get rid of the whole mess by aborting the fetuses. The ones that live to be married after the ordeal then face the risk of being unable to give birth and if they do give birth, they have to deal daily with the trauma and scars brought about by the abortive measures.
Rape is a brutal act that causes so much damage be it physical, mental and/or emotional. It is sad to note that until last month, 8 rape victims of the 2007/8 post-election violence were still suing the government a lump sum of about £20M over its alleged failure to protect them or investigate the crimes committed against them. The question as to whether this is the first time the Kenyan government has been blamed for failing to do one thing or another with regard to this issue is sternly answered by a violent no. The L.A Times has articles from as early as 1992 when the tourism department had two of its game rangers facing possible death row over the death of a British tourist Julie Ward in 1988. A year later Somali women refugees complained of "an appalling lack of concern for their plight".
Away from the government and some 29 boys aged between 14 and 19 in 1991 were charged with manslaughter for the murder of 19 and the rape of 71 other girls who were their schoolmates at St. Kizito. FIDA, the federation of women lawyers, record on their blog police statistics that reveal the fact that 5 children wake up defiled, 3 people end up dead and 2 women are raped every dawn. This is very alarming. Among these people could be your mother, your sister, daughter, wife or friend.
You could be among the millions of women living in slums and facing the fear of an impending attack on your way to the toilet. You could be a mother unaware of what your daughter has gone through in the dark or the sister who saw it all. You could be the friend who was confided in or the lawyer who was entrusted with the task of obtaining justice. Or you could simply be the reader who is yet to figure out what I am trying to pass across.
Only one in 20 of the raped victims report the offense. It could be due to lost faith in the Kenya Police or the authorities. It could also be due to the fact that in most cases the offense is done by people we know. Whatever the reason, we should at least improve the number of those that seek medical help from a worrying one in every 6 of the cases.
Today, on world International Women's' day, let us make a choice to stand up for and with these women, men and even children that have been victims of rape. We may not be able to reverse time and change their fates or change where we live because it is beyond us. We can however be more sensitive to this issue and support those like Josephine who are marching on the front-line. We can educate teenagers on the importance of walking in groups to and from school. We can discourage little girls from accepting gifts from strangers and train them to be alert at all times. We can show teens how to discern an ulterior motive. We can and should be careful when we are out partying with friends in order to avert date rape and being "Chipo-d". Truth be told, there's a lot that we can all do yet the most important place we can choose to be is at the side of the victims renewing their hope and helping them rise back on their feet, mending the torn pieces of cloth and wiping their tears. We could form support groups for them to run to depending on our different capacities. After all, it could happen to anyone of us.
