Most sexual abuses during election are by police — report

Lucy (not her real name) locked her rheumy sunken eyes with her friend's and grinned.

“I have fulfilled my promise to you. I have smiled,” she muttered softly. 

Lucy had found a friend in Irene Soila, a programmer's officer at Kenya Human Rights Commission after sharing what she considered dark life.

Soila had made her promise to smile but after she kept her word, there was very little left for Lucy to live for. Her friend Soila was left to tell her story.

She had been robbed of her dignity and the love of her life.

Lucy, 54, had been living with her husband in Migori town. The two eked a living out of selling candies and other items by the roadside.

They lived from hand to mouth, some days going hungry, but love bound them together.

However on October 27, 2017, a few days after the repeat presidential election, their lives were turned upside down.

At around 3pm, while Lucy was at her business place, she saw people running away screaming. She left her business and joined them.

“She did not know what was going on but as she ran, she saw a group of men chasing after her. So she ran even faster,” Soila narrated to a group of survivors of sexual violence in Nairobi.

“She ran past a forest and soon enough she was at her door. However, as soon as she had unlocked her door, the group caught up with her”.

Soila said one man threw her onto the chair and asked her to strip naked. She did not heed and they ripped off her clothes, and the first man pounced on her.

“He raped her and when he was done, the second man took his turn and raped her. The third man jumped on her as he began to rape her, Lucy passed out,” Soila said. 

Lucy did not know how many more men raped her after but when she regained consciousness at around 6pm, her husband was seated next to her.

“This is what they have done to you my wife,” he said as he helped Lucy up to their bed.

Lucy remained on the bed, without food for two days. On the third day, when she woke up, her husband had packed his clothes and left.

They had been married for over 30 years. After he left, the husband would call Lucy to know how she was doing until one day he went quiet.

“Lucy was called and told her husband had died from depression,” Soila narrated.

When she met Lucy a few weeks after the death of her husband, she looked frail and hopeless.

Lucy said she had been infected with HIV and the taste of death appealed to her more at that point.

“I asked her to fight on. To get anti-retroviral therapy and live on,” Soila narrated tearfully.

Lucy, however, could not keep another promise, she died the same year.

Some 79 other women in Kisumu, Migori and Vihiga interviewed by KHRC suffered a similar ordeal during the 2017 electioneering period.

The study was conducted in areas perceived as opposition strongholds between July and December 2018.

According to the study dubbed Sexual Violence as a Political Tool during Elections in Kenya, rape was the most common form of violence; netted on people, especially from poor economic backgrounds.

The study showed the main perpetrators were gang rapes by police officers during security crackdowns and protests.

“Most survivors interviewed said they were raped without protection. Only one survivor said perpetrators used protection,” reads the report.

Of all cases documented, 19.3 per cent were raped by one perpetrator and 52.6 per cent by multiple perpetrators.

In Vihiga, documented cases of sexual violence took place near or in Majengo town, while survivors were engaged in their daily work routines (at the market, near a river, on the road, on their way back home from the town).

In Migori, most cases took place at survivors’ workplaces in Namba town(like shops, salons and hotels).

In Kisumu, the violence took place at survivors’ homes, mostly in Obunga, Kasarani and Nyalenda areas. Perpetrators entered survivors’ places of work or residence.

The report noted that rape was accompanied by other forms of violence.

Survivors reported being slapped, beaten, insulted, gagged, strangled, their mouths being sealed or clasped, and being hit with objects or weapons.

In several cases in Vihiga and Migori, survivors indicated that they had been raped in front of their relatives (husbands, children and cousins).

In Kisumu, survivors said their husbands were either not present or had been forcibly evicted from the house by the police.

Others reported having been robbed by their assailants or having witnessed the destruction of their property.

In four cases (documented in Kisumu), survivors reported having faced attempted rape. False pretences were reportedly used by perpetrators (in Vihiga) to subdue the survivors, such as police officers pretending to rescue survivors so that the women thought they were safe.

KHRC recommended that ahead of the general elections, prevention mechanisms, be put in place.

The report urged the government to investigate, prosecute officers found culpable of sexual violence and remove from office those in command.

It also urged the state to ensure gender desks in police stations are fully functional desk and rescue centres upgraded and facilitated.

“Some of the laws should be repealed to cover all aspects of sexual violence and abolish practices providing for mandatory medical examination in cases of rape,” the report reads.

Edited by Kiilu Damaris