African Woman and Child Feature Service

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.

“We are happy that through the efforts of various organizations our women can learn, because ignorance has been the cause of our problems,” she says

The forums are mainly solution based; they allow participants to engage in dialogue around the experiences and challenges surrounding gender based violence.

The forums organized by the Centre of Rights and Awareness (CREAW) are targeted at both individuals and community leaders in order to create awareness about gender based violence and the function of the Sexual Offences Act.

“We have found in the field a reluctance to talk about what happened in 2008,” says Caroline Nyambura programmes coordinator at Centre for Rights and Awareness (CREAW ). She adds that there has been no information on what course of action one should take

Before the Sexual Offences Act was passed, the law on sexual violence was spread through four different pieces of legislation, which complicated matters for victims, the police and judiciary. The definition of the offence of rape was also very limited and the law categorized rape as an issue of morality. It was considered prejudicial to women who form the majority of sexual violence victims. Sentencing was entirely at the discretion of magistrates and in many cases the punishment for offenders did not fit the crime.

Government responses

During conflict situations as evidenced by the post election violence, the government response is limited.

Risper attests to this saying that there were a high number of women reporting being violated by the same security forces that had been sent to protect them.

To compound the problem most of the women are now reluctant to come forward due to fear and embarrassment. One survivor says she would not press charges as the police violated her.

A participant lifts his hand at some point and asks whether gender based violence affects men, pointing out perhaps to a seemingly unheard problem, most people in the crowd answer him seemingly saying yes.

“We have heard of cases of men having been violated but no one has come forward to report any case,” says Pauline Aroko, a paralegal at CREAW.

Effective solutions needed

Gender based violence can be addressed well if there is a multi-sectoral approach says Caroline, “We need to combine efforts from the health, justice, security and psycho-social sectors all to support the community and victims.”

She adds that everyone plays a necessary part and when one has a shortfall then it becomes a tangled ball of string for the victim who is shuttled from one office to another.

Awareness campaigns on sexual offences act are held monthly within the community by paralegal assistants from CREAW.

Perhaps key has been passing the message about sexual violence and HIV through influential community leaders.

There is still the fear that the magnitude of violence witnessed in 2008 might happen again, as most of the youth involved in that time are still ardent political followers and are still idle.

Steven Njoroge, youth leader of the Ethiopia Foundation in Mashimoni Kibera says the forums are good but he doesn’t feel the root causes of the violence were addressed. He says the youth need continuous counselling and messages of sexual violence should be hang in areas that can be seen.

A thought echoed by Judith Akinyi who says, “The government should have large billboards with details on each sexual offence in the act and the penalty so that our men and youth know from an early age the consequences of their actions.”