• Without adequate content moderation policies, serious issues including SGBV are reduced to humor and memes.
• Women who dare express themselves in a manner that is deemed to challenge the status quo, continue to be subjected to violence
Image: THE STAR
Over the last three years, cases of sexual and gender-based violence against women have been reported to be on the rise in Kenya, according to the National Gender and Equality Commission.
This was catalyzed by the ongoing global challenges from the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic to the ongoing economic challenges coupled with an intense election period.
On March 7, 2022, as we were preparing to celebrate International Women’s Day, we woke up to a terrifying video of a woman being viciously attacked by a group of men, as her terror-struck cries and pleas fell on the deaf ears of her attackers who were alleged boda boda operators. The woman had been involved in an accident with one of the operators.
The incident once again brought to the fore the worrisome state of the fight against SGBV in Kenya. For most women, it was a reminder of the realities of everyday lives, the unprompted attacks they face every day, as they go about their day-to-day lives with no way of even predicting what may trigger an attack.
While it is laudable that we seem to have survived the electoral period without the magnitude of violations experienced in the past, it would be remiss to assume there were no incidents of SGBV.
In the period between April and September 2022, a report by FIDA on Election SGBV indicates that 1,746 cases of election-related violence were reported across the 47 counties, with a majority taking the form of verbal abuse or hate speech at 54 per cent, while cyberbullying was second at 23 per cent.
This data reflects tactics used to intimidate women, particularly women political aspirants with a view to dissuading them from pursuing elected positions or exercising their freedom of expression and the right to vote.
Counter campaigns against women aspirants characterized by harassment have also now become a familiar campaign tactic in many elections even beyond Kenya. The experiences of most women in politics confirmed fears expressed by Article 19 last year in their article on this same platform on the same occasion of 16 days of activism, where they predicted that online violence would be a key factor for consideration in the election period for its likely impact in derailing women in politics from their pursuits.
Similarly, as the social media space evolves and permeates, the various platforms continue to be a rich breeding ground for the manosphere movement. Without adequate content moderation policies, serious issues including SGBV are reduced to humor and memes. Women who have an active public life or who dare express themselves in a manner that is deemed to challenge the status quo, continue to be subjected to violence and mental anguish by the faceless and fearless keyboard warriors because after, all there are no accountability mechanisms.
We are not short of worrying statistics and trends. According to WHO, one out of three women have experienced violence (a constant statistic for over a decade), while five women or girls are killed by people from within their families every hour according to UNODC.
Online, 60 per cent of women on key social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) have experienced harassment driving one in five girls and young women to abandon or cut back on the use of social media, according to Plan International.
The space for Women Human Rights Defenders is increasingly shrinking as they are shamed, vilified and constantly under attack as shown by Article 19 report in 2022. Women cannot exercise their freedom of assembly for fear of harassment, including sexual, verbal, or physical violence, even from police officers who are entrusted with their protection.
With the call to ‘unite’ for activism support to prevent violence against women and girls headlining this year’s 16 days of activism, the call is simple: We must remain united in the fight against SGBV.
While the face of SGBV seems to be constantly mutating and we are continually faced with the same old and newer challenges, we must not lose sight nor understate the magnitude of the problem. We must work towards ring-fencing the gains made so far, while innovatively addressing the new challenges.
In the face, of toxic masculinity campaigns on online platforms we must UNITE with positive messaging campaigns, we must continually demand for safer and equal platforms for all even as we create safer alternative spaces, we must rally behind women’s voices in both online and offline spaces.
We must unite to hold our governments to their commitments to end SGBV. For instance, Kenya made several commitments within the Generation Equality Forum in 2021 towards GBV response, including investments of $23 million towards prevention and response to GBV in 2022. There was also the introduction of a GBV indicator in government performance contracting framework by 2022, the integration of holistic GBV care services in the Universal Health Coverage by 2022, the scale-up ‘policare’ (the integrated response to GBV at police stations), the establishment of the GBV Survivors Fund. Where are we on these commitments? or are they just another aspirational document?
More importantly, we must unite to hold each other accountable and take responsibility for our own contributions to the vice, by normalising certain practices, failing to speak up, or propagating narratives and stereotypes.
Yes, it is a personal responsibility because even with the most progressive laws and policies, the war on SGBV cannot be won without the reengineering of deep-rooted societal culture and norms.
Muthuri Kathure is the Senior Program Officer Civic Space and Jane Muhia is the Program Officer Civic Space both at Article 19 Eastern Africa.