In the quiet villages of Busia county, haunting reminders of violence stand in silence. Grass-thatched and mabati houses, once homes filled with laughter and family gatherings, now crumble, abandoned to decay.
In Luhya culture, once a grandmother is raped and killed, her house is considered cursed. No one dares to live in it. The empty shells of these homes mark not only lives lost but also a community’s unresolved grief.
Figures show that one in every eight women killed by men in the last 15 years was aged above 70.
Survivors recount the horror of being violated by those they trusted most: close relatives, neighbours, even family members meant to protect them.
They live with the memory every single day. Their pain is not just physical, it is mental torture.
Many of these attacks are driven by greed for land and property. Frail elderly women, often without strong protection, are easy targets.
In some cases, perpetrators are emboldened by cultural stigma that silences survivors and isolates families.
For Busia’s elderly women, safety within their own homes is no longer guaranteed. The very walls that once symbolised security and belonging now carry memories of betrayal and violence.
As their stories surface, they raise painful questions about the loss of dignity for grandmothers.
CORRUPT POLICE
*Priscilla, 90 years old, bursts into dance, singing while tapping a walking stick on the ground.
“Omwene dala sangala khu vakeni vasangale (The owner of the house warmly welcomes visitors),” she sings a song by Vincent Ongindi.
She welcomes us to her home with bright smiles. To her, visitors are to be welcomed with joy regardless of who they are.
As she settles down, Priscilla recounts how one night, at around 11 pm, a man who was also her neighbour attacked her.
“The man came into my house one night. He kicked the door open and started assaulting me sexually,” Priscilla said.
“I screamed and shouted for help but no one came to my rescue. He is someone well known to me have but we have never interacted until that night when he came to my house, and I was shocked.”
According to her culture, the man who abused her is considered like a clan son.
With no one to rescue her, the following morning, word spread and reached Mary Makokha, executive director of the Rural Education and Economic Enhancement Programme, who came to her aid.
Makokha took her to hospital for treatment and later to the police station to report the incident.
The suspect was arrested but months later, his relatives sold a cow and paid for his release from police custody.
Priscilla says justice has been denied and the suspect still roams free. She wishes he could have been sentenced to eight years.
“I expected more from the system but since I don’t have money to get the justice I deserve, I have to live with the decision that was made, whereby the perpetrator was released and he came back home,” she said.
Priscilla now lives in her homestead with her nine-year-old great-granddaughter, who helps her since she is partially blind. But her safety is never assured.
She says some of her belongings are stolen when she is away. Her children live far away and only occasionally send food. Often, she goes hungry when they do not.
“My son came to know about the incident. I don’t have any comment about that because he asked me to leave those things alone,” she said softly.
Priscilla’s story mirrors the pain of many elderly women across Busia. Survivors not only endure trauma but also face systemic failures that deny them justice.
Cases are often silenced by cultural taboos, poverty or negotiated settlements that let suspects walk free.
For these women, safety within their own homes has been stripped away. Instead, fear and stigma define their final years.
QUEST FOR JUSTICE
At 90 years old, Mariana still tends to her small homestead in Busia county. As a farmer, she raised eight children: four sons and four daughters.
Today, only three daughters survive. All her sons and one daughter have died, and she now lives with her 12-year-old granddaughter, who helps care for her in her old age.
But behind her frail frame and quiet smile is a story of betrayal and pain that continues to haunt her.
Mariana recalls that on the fateful day, she and her granddaughter spent the whole day at home. But at around 11 pm, everything changed.
Her grandson, a man she had helped raise, broke down her door and began to assault her.
“He knocked down the door and started assaulting me. I shouted and screamed for help but my grandson kept choking and suffocating me so that I could not scream,” she said, wiping tears from her eyes.
“He then came back for the second time. I screamed and luckily my granddaughter came to help.”
Days later, the horror repeated itself. This time, her granddaughter ran out and alerted a villager, who caught her grandson in the act.
He was taken to the police station and jailed. She said he spent just over a month in custody before his siblings sold a cow to secure his release.
“I trusted that I will get justice to keep my grandson in jail but it has failed me because he was released after his siblings paid some money. I want the law to serve me the justice that I deserve,” Mariana said.
Another family in Bumula, Busia is fighting to get justice after their 96-year-old grandmother was brutally raped and murdered inside her home.
Her daughter-in-law, Pracxides, said the day started normally. She left for the farm early in the morning and returned at noon.
Later, after showering, a neighbour asked about her mother-in-law, noting that her house was locked from outside.
As night fell, Pracxides decided to check inside before locking the house. What she found left her shaken.
“The house was a mess. Everything was scattered. I saw my mother’s clothes on the floor. When I checked her room, I found her body,” Pracxides said.
“Her hands were covered in blood. When I removed the blanket, I saw she had been raped and strangled. Her head was tied with a shawl.”
Police were called and the body was taken to Seka Health Facility before a post-mortem.
The report confirmed the elderly woman had been raped, her neck broken and her body bore signs of violence.
When the villagers heard of what had transpired, they torched the house of the suspects, who are her neighbours.
“The incident affected me because I was close to my mother-in-law. When I remember it, I just pray and cry because that was not something normal,” Pracxides said.
“I don’t think the case will be solved. I only want the truth to be known.”
COURT STEPS UP
Busia Law Courts chief magistrate Edna Nyaloti said sexual and gender-based violence cases remain one of the most disturbing crimes she handles, with elderly women often among the most vulnerable victims.
She said the court continues to secure convictions despite challenges, with the success rate of sexual offence cases in Busia being commendable.
In 2023, out of 126 cases, 97 resulted in convictions, she said, adding that the most shocking are cases involving elderly survivors.
The magistrate recalled incidents where women more than 80 years old were raped by people close to them.
“It is heartbreaking when the assailant is a grandson or a trusted neighbour. These are cases that shake the community to its core,” she said.
She said such survivors not only endure physical harm but also deep psychological scars, compounded by stigma and fear of reprisals.
The magistrate called for stronger community support, proper investigations and survivor-centred justice.
“We must stand with survivors and ensure the law works for them regardless of their age,” she said.
Busia county is witnessing a disturbing rise in cases of elderly women being raped, according to Equality Now, an international women’s rights organisation working across Africa to end SGBV.
Equality Now End Sexual Violence programme officer Jean Murunga said the organisation has been working in Busia for six years.
Under a project called Gender Justice, it aims to ensure survivors receive justice without being re-traumatised.
Equality Now works in partnership with the Rural Education and Economic Enhancement Programme, a community-based organisation in Butula and Nambale subcounties.
The collaboration includes training police officers on handling survivors, sensitising communities on reporting and supporting a network of 20 local organisations to guide survivors through the referral pathway from health facilities to court.
However, Murunga noted a worrying pattern involving extremely elderly survivors.
“They have increasingly been receiving a number of cases of elderly women being raped,” he said.
“So far, at least five cases have been reported between May and September this year. The survivors were between 80 and 96 years old.”
Many of the elderly women live alone after their children move to towns for work, leaving them vulnerable.
“I feel like the perpetrators see these elderly women as weak, unable to resist,” Murunga said.
“The stigma and shame are major barriers to reporting. They feel that by reporting, their children will be ashamed that this happened to their grandmother.”
Equality Now has also supported Busia county in developing an SGBV policy that calls for safe shelters and stronger coordination between county and national authorities.
