The 1985 Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women defines Peace as not only the absence of war, violence and hostilities at national and international levels, but also, the enjoyment of economic and social justice, equality and the entire range of human rights and fundamental freedoms within society.
Respect for the fundamental rights of all people is an essential feature of any democracy. But many women and girls in Kenya are born into war; a war in which they are subjected to physical as well as psychological abuse. As the paper says, the fact that abuse is generally condoned as social custom rather than crime is in itself a grim indication of its high incidence.
Women are at war against inhuman treatment. Many times, social customs are social injustices against women and girls. Female genital mutilation for example is a social custom which although declared illegal in Kenya is still rampant in some parts of the country. The physical deformation that females are subjected to following female genital mutilation and the psychological torture that they endure where they refuse to undergo the cut is a manifestation of the hostility of a society against women and girls. Similarly, societal practice to disregard the needs of women and girls in inheritance cases amounts to blatant discrimination against us.
Constant abuse means that we are constantly looking over our backs, spending countless hours trying to succeed in a world that seems intent on watching us fail. It does not seem to help that human rights bodies have created awareness and challenged impunity for women’s human rights violations.
A woman is raped in Kenya every half hour. Rape is an end result of other crimes. Where women are in public vehicles that get hijacked, women get raped. Where communities fight, women get raped. Where houses are burgled, women get raped. And so women bear the brunt of insecurity in Kenya. Sometimes they are raped and killed. Other times they survive death but are left with psychological scars; long term side effects of their ordeals- social withdrawal, anger, hostility, loss of self esteem as well as physical scars. Women are also at war with a society that discriminates against rape victims. Why were we dressed in a certain manner, what did we do to encourage the rapist, what diseases have we caught from the deal and more importantly, are they contagious?
For years women have been at war with a justice system that is lax in its enforcement of the law. Rape suspects are freed on technicalities. Inheritance cases drag on for years as do maintenance cases. Women have on some occasions allegedly been assaulted by the very people charged with their protection. Incidences of groping during arrests have been alleged.
Women in parts of Kenya still fight to have their household contributions recognised as productive activities of the society. Baring and caring for children, cleaning and cooking are all part of the great economic role women contribute. It is as though the fact that women do not derive a salary from these activities creates a screen of invisibility that shields society from appreciating the role that women play so that even where women bring as much as men or sometimes even more to the table at the end of the day, no monetary value is attached to it and therefore no value at all.
Entry of women into the paid labour force has resulted in new found respect for us and our capabilities but with it has come a challenge; to constantly prove our worth. As the old cliché goes, a woman must work twice as hard to be considered half as good.
So every day we put together our fighting gear, we never forget our body armour because our society can be dangerous and heart wrenching. You never know when a ‘stray bullet’ will hit you or whether your country will be there to protect you. We shuffle along, some of us complacent and others at the front lines because Kenya’s ratification of the human rights conventions appears to have had little practical or even formal significance. Only time will tell if we finally fall in step with the free and peaceful world before it’s too late.
Facebook
FourSquare
GooglePlus
LinkedIn
Twitter
Youtube