- These bloodcurdling tales have been with us for far too long
- It has even reached a point where criminals are assuming celebrity status.
Kenya may be a country given to debating everything on social media, but it’s current discourse on rape and violence against women is distasteful. We have seen men who have given birth to daughters, men who were carried in the womb for nine months and grown-ups proud to be married to women justify rape and coldblood murder of women.
No one in his right mind would say their mother or sister “ate fare” and deserved death were they to be murdered, but that’s exactly what many of us are doing because the victims are not our blood relatives.
This selfishness and insensitivity of abetting crime when it does not touch on us, our families and acquaintances is the bane of our country. We saw Sharon Otieno, the Rongo University student killed and thrown in a thicket in Homa Bay, being accused of so many things: from being a ‘slay queen’ to failing to take advantage of the ‘opportunity’ to build her parents a good house.
Ivy Wangeci of Moi University was hacked to death in broad-day light by an alleged jilted lover, and the accusations of eating fare rained on her like the ferocious blows of a boxing champion.
These bloodcurdling tales have been with us for far too long, and our justice system of granting bail to suspects somehow seems to be a breeding ground for murderers and rapists. It has even reached a point where criminals are assuming celebrity status.
It’s unfortunate that as a result of this, our society has morphed into one where women are seen to be at war with men; a society where no man, whether relative or a cleric, can be trusted next to two-year-olds. We have defiled the soul of the country and created a little Sodom and Gomorrah where elderly men are not ashamed of having sex with their biological daughters.
We shouldn’t bury our heads in the sand like the proverbial ostrich and act as though all is well and dandy. Rape ordeals are condemning people to depression; a generation is losing its future and men are turning into serial whiners whose speciality cannot go beyond crying wolf about their ‘fare being eaten’.
It’s incumbent upon men to take up the upbringing of male children as a cardinal duty. Men must teach their sons the virtues of kindness and proactiveness. We must go back to the days of yore when men served as gatekeepers of homes in society, not crybabies blaming women for their downfall. And government must remain true to the ideals of our Anthem, where justice is our shield and defender.
Freelance journalist and writer @ApolloJoab [email protected]