On a chilly Tuesday evening in 2002, Miriam Wangui was convulsed in shock after she was gang raped.

Wangui says that she was in a vehicle that got carjacked “We were carjacked sometime back in 2002 and the gang ordered all men to leave after relieving them of their valuables. I was however, held hostage and raped at gun point.

The community leaders flow in one by one into the social hall in Mashimoni and as they receive their workshop materials including a simplified version of the Sexual Offences Act 2006,one can only hope that it will make a difference to in this slum which was a hot spot during the post election violence.

Risper Awino is an elder and chairlady for the local women’s group in Mashimoni and says that the community forums over the last two years have been numerous, however she says those on gender based violence have hit closer home due to the number of women sexually abused during the political chaos.

Although it is an experience she would rather forget, she knows all too well that the memory of that fateful ordeal will follow her to her grave.

Every so often the bitterness and the pain overwhelm her as justice remains a mirage.

“I was raped, starved and subjected to 70 strokes of the cane for six days nonstop,” begins Mercy Wangui as she recounts the harrowing ordeal in the hands of the famous Naivasha vampire.

Regina Omonge, 36, will not relent until she succeeds in her campaign to promote peaceful co-existence among the various communities residing in Busia irrespective of their ethnic background.

And she has every reason to undertake the spirited campaign as she was among thousands of people who were displaced at the height of the post election violence in 2007.

“I opted to venture into peace building initiatives after I was subjected to a harrowing ordeal during the eruption of violence that saw innocent people lose their dear lives and properties for reasons best known to the perpetrators of the post election violence”, says Omonge, adding that all her tools of trade were burnt beyond recognition whereas some were looted by armed youths.