How Kenya’s epidemic femicide is turning into a national crisis
Kenya is grappling with a national issue described as a national crisis by rights groups, prompting women to organize protests against the escalating femicide and violence targeting women.
Hundreds of Kenyans in the last week of January have engaged in a series of protests using hashtags like #EndFemicideKE and #TotalShutdownKE.
The recent murders of two Kenyan women have only thrown more light on the crisis. Starlet Wahu, a social media influencer, was found dead with stab wounds and bite marks after entering a short-term rental with a man on January 3. Another incident involved the dismembered body of Rita Waeni, a fourth-year student, discovered in a bag at a trash collection point on January 14.
The police also reported that Christine Aume who was cooking in her detached kitchen was attacked and beheaded on January 17. On the same day, another woman was murdered and left by a road in central Kenya.
Femicide refers to the deliberate killing of women or girls, primarily because of their gender, often perpetrated by their partners or individuals known to them, such as family members.
Amnesty International Kenya has documented over 10 femicide cases since January 1, 2024, indicating that, on average, every second day a woman faces brutalization and death because of her identity. Between 2016 and 2023, more than 500 women, mostly below the age of 35, were killed by intimate partners or acquaintances.
Femicide Count Kenya, which monitors reported killings in local news, identified 58 deaths it labelled as femicides between January and October 2022 and recorded 150 in 2023.
Activists are calling for stronger government measures to protect women, despite the existing treaties and laws addressing gender-based violence in Kenya, such as the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Sexual Offences Act.
They argue that these policies are inadequately enforced. “We have also written very nice, very good laws. But then when it comes to practice, it's not very good," Audrey Mugeni co-founder of Femicide Count Kenya was quoted by media agency CBC Radio.
Activists are pushing for femicide to be explicitly recognized as a crime, demanding harsher sentences for perpetrators. They also advocate for improved data collection on violence against women and the training of health and law enforcement officers to identify and protect vulnerable individuals proactively.
In a recent statement, Harriette Chiggai, the President's Advisor on Women’s Rights, strongly condemned the persisting violence against women. Chiggai expressed concern about how Kenyan society “has allowed such a decay that does not hold human life sacred and wore still that looks at women as objects to be abused.”
