•Esther was forced to change her statements to indicate that the police visited the crime scene and accompanied her to the hospital, which they did not.
•On several occasions, Esther had to face her abuser and even sit in the same room with him which only retraumatized her.
Dear H.E. Dr. William Samoei Ruto, CGH. President of the Republic of Kenya and Commander-In-Chief of the Kenya Defence Forces
Your Excellency, a 6-year-old girl was defiled, murdered and buried in a shallow grave in Kakamega.
A mother of 3 who sells bananas to fend for her children was waylaid on her way back home and gang raped by men who live in her neighbourhood.
A 12-year-old girl cannot report the fact that her father defiles her every day for fear of repercussions and breaking the family.
A young woman was raped by a boda boda rider who was ferrying her home. This is not even a tip of the iceberg on the massive bog that is sexual offences.
Every day, there are news reports on sexual offences of one nature or another including defilement, rape, attempted rape, gang rape, incest and sexual assault. In 2021, 9,484 children were defiled.
Mr President, that is about 25 children every day being subjected to ghastly, beastly attacks that violate them in ways that strip them of their dignity and traumatise them for a lifetime.
Despite the veracity and inhumanness of these acts of rape, molestation and defilement, the trauma does not end there. No sir, in fact, this is often the beginning of their nightmare.
Your Excellency, 19-year-old Esther was lucky to find a job during the covid period, she was referred to John, an ex-police officer, who owned the company.
John asked her to report to work on her first day. On the first day, her employer John came to her and raped her.
Devastated, Esther ran home to her sister’s house. It took a lot of persuasion before a broken and helpless Esther agreed to report the case to the police station.
She was relieved to be assigned a woman, Sergeant Mary, as the investigating officer. Esther felt like this woman would relate to her experience and help her.
However, it quickly became apparent that Sergeant Mary was well acquainted with John as he was a former police officer.
What followed was a series of harassment, intimidation and falsifying of information by the Investigating Officer in favour of John who admitted to raping her.
Esther was forced to change her statements to indicate that the police visited the crime scene and accompanied her to the hospital, which they did not. On several occasions, Esther had to face her abuser and even sit in the same room with him which only retraumatized her.
Finally, Sergeant Mary pushed Esther to agree on an out-of-court settlement. Frustrated, exhausted and broke from the frequent trips to the station, Esther was forced to agree to a payment of Sh130,000 in 4 instalments of Sh32,500 each in exchange for her silence.
On signing the agreement, the officer demanded 10,000 for each instalment that the abuser paid her.
Your Excellency, in her own words, says, “The rape in itself was very traumatizing, however, the experience I had to endure in the hands of the criminal justice system was very dehumanizing and seriously affected my mental well-being.”
Mr President, where is the justice if such a case took over a year before the survivor gave in just to make the pain and trauma stop? Where is accountability in the continuum of care? Are the police, hospitals, and courts compromised or just not responding to the cases with the urgency, discretion and dignity it requires?
Your Excellency, during the United Nations Generation Equality Forum 2021 in Paris, former President Uhuru Kenyatta declared 12 commitments to end gender-based violence (GBV) by 2026.
So far, very few of those commitments have been fulfilled. He maintained this position during the Agnes Tirop Gender Conference 2022 where he confirmed that the government has committed financial and human resources towards GBV research and innovation to facilitate the designing and implementation of GBV response programs and providing GBV medico-legal and psychosocial support services to survivors.
What is the progress on these commitments? We are calling on the government to fulfil its commitment to protecting survivors.
Your Excellency, recently, the High Court and Court of Appeal declared that mandatory minimum sentences for sexual offences are unconstitutional.
The Judiciary needs to take into account survivor experiences and uphold their right to remedy that is effective and commensurate with the offence.
We demand that the Supreme court upholds the minimum mandatory sentencing for sexual offences. Thank you, Sir!
Truly Centre for Rights, Education and Awareness (CREAW) [email protected].
&
Adelle Onyango
Founder, Legally Clueless Africa
Founder, The Adelle Onyango Initiative
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