Source: The Star
So much has been said about the worst form of punishment for rape. In a small village of Tingolo in Busia County, some Administrative Police officers decided that the best they could do to punish six young men who had gang raped a 16-year-old girl was to slash grass! Liz was literally left for the dead as they threw her in an unused 6-meter pit latrine.

Liz's case is symptomatic of a bigger underlying problem - impunity on sexual and gender based violence and questioning due diligence especially on State accountability for violence against women.

This includes measures for prevention, protection, prosecution, punishment and provision of redress and reparations. Reparative justice can include but is not limited to a public apology.

One of our key demands in Liz's case is that the Inspector General of Police gives a public apology to Liz and all Kenyan women and girls for police misconduct on this case.

In stressing the need for due diligence and accountability for violence against women this year's United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, emphasized the need to have all States observe their obligations at all levels, to use all appropriate means of legislative, political, economic, social and administrative nature in order to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms of women and girls. Kenya is yet to demonstrate this through concrete action.

Violence against women is the worst manifestation of misogyny and a society that is intolerant of women's bodily integrity and autonomy. Justice4Liz is a quest for safety and security measures for all women and girls. It gives us hope that this case will not turn to yet another typical story: a gang rape unprosecuted, unpunished and forgotten.

For the longest time I have asked myself just what the boiling point for Kenyans is? What else needs to happen to make Kenyans rise up and say no to rape and other gender crimes that are on the rise?

Just how many more of women and girls have to become a rape statistics before we can get really and truly angry about it? It is in essence a part of complacency and a silent message that we are a society that condones such acts.

Many of us have joined in the Campaign "Justice4Liz" and in so doing we have all become part of a larger movement that seeks to break the chains of violence and the silence that shrouds it.

The Coalition on Violence Against Women (COVAW) and the African Communication and Development Network (FEMNET) both of which are members of the Solidarity for African Women's Rights have come together with others to build collective action around making demands for Justice4Liz.

COVAW has been providing legal and psychosocial support to Liz and her family while at the same engaging the police and the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to ensure due diligence.

FEMNET started an online petition that has already received over one million signatures. This is the petition we shall present today to the Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo after holding a peaceful street protest.

We shall continue to roar and demand that the perpetrators are arrested and prosecuted. In a country where the Flying Squad exists and responds to bank robberies within minutes, it is unimaginable that the police are unable (or unwilling) to trace the perpetrators of this crime.

Rape and other forms of sexual violence are a reminder of the kind of phallocratic society we live in; one that celebrates violence, accepts violence and creates heroes out of violence. Does a healthy culture allow for its daughters to be raped?

Society places blame and shame on the victims and survivors thereby making it difficult for those violated to speak out. Women who report rape are often told it is their fault for putting themselves in vulnerable situations.

They are stigmatized, treated as outcasts and sometimes sent away by the police when they go to report. Thanks to police we now have the worst case scenario worldwide to draw from - in Kenya a police officer can just ask the rapist to slash grass and send you home to nurse the aftermath of the rape!

It is a constitutional right to be protected against all forms of violence and it is not an act of charity. What happened to Liz serves to remind us that rape abounds and rapists are aided to get away Scot-free.

Rape is abnormal - period! It is a scar on modern society that must be stamped out by ending impunity and changing men's attitudes towards women.

Rape survivors are increasingly speaking up and seeking help as awareness of rights increases, but social taboos persist and seeking justice does not always mean that justice is served. We refuse to be silenced. We shall roar till something is done about rape.

Saida Ali is the executive director of the Coalition on Violence Against Women - Kenya

 

 

 

• Kenya