State accused of "failing to protect women"

The Kenyan government has failed in its duty of protecting one half of the country's population by largely ignoring the plight of women victims of sexual violence and failing to put in place legislative and constitutional measures to promote women's human rights, according to Amnesty International.

The strong indictment of Kenya's police and other state security institutions was contained in a new report released by the organisation at a press conference in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Friday: International Women's Day.

Rape was a widespread crime committed against women in all social and ethnic groups in Kenya, but largely suffered in silence, because "women know that reporting rape will not lead to a proper investigation and hardly ever to a prosecution", according to Amnesty.

The report, entitled "Rape - The Invisible Crime", outlines the nature and extent of sexual violence against women in Kenya, focusing in particular on rape committed by both state security officials (including the police) and private individuals.

It examines why women subjected to such abuses are inadequately provided for by the law, while the perpetrators can continue to commit their offences with impunity.

According to Kenyan police statistics, 1,675 rapes were reported in 2000, but local women's groups believe the real figure to be far higher, because many victims fail to report their cases for fear of being embarrassed, ridiculed, verbally abused or made to feel that they are wasting police time, Amnesty stated.

In its report, the organisation defines rape as a form of torture, especially when victims are denied justice.

"Rape is torture when the state has failed in its responsibilities to protect, investigate and provide redress to women victims. Acts of violence constitute torture for which the state is accountable when they are of the nature and severity envisaged by the concept of torture in international standards, and the state has failed to fulfil its obligation to provide effective protection," said Marie Evelyne Petrus, Amnesty's regional director for Africa, in launching the report.

Addressing journalists at the launch of the report, Petrus said most victims faced "insurmountable obstacles" in trying to bring perpetrators to justice, because most victims of rape or other forms of sexual abuse were too intimidated by cultural attitudes and state inaction to seek redress.

"To do so can lead to hostility from family, the community and the police, with little hope for success. Those who do seek justice are confronted by a system that ignores, denies and even condones violence against women, and protects perpetrators, whether they are state officials or private individuals," she added.

One of the reasons for the continuing silence around rape is the failure by the state to take action against such abuses through legislation, despite its stated commitment to promoting gender equality and to a number of international instruments calling for the protection of women's rights which it has ratified.

"Despite its moral and legal obligations, the government has not reformed Kenya's laws to make all acts of violence against women criminal offences, nor has it addressed the discriminatory practices of the police force, prisons service and court system," according to Amnesty.

"It is the failure of the state to take action against such abuses, whether they are committed by state officers or by private individuals, that allows them to continue. The state has to take responsibility to protect women from continuing violence," it stated in its report.

Pauline Owoko, a survivor of domestic violence, also present at the report's launch, said most women victims of violence regarded it "normal" to be brutalised by their spouses, and often feared to leave them or pursue a legal case against them because of economic dependency, high legal fees, and fear of losing their children or being ostracised by the family.

"I went through a humiliating experience. I didn't know that I could get out of it. But I decided to stand up and say no. I didn't deserve to be beaten," Owoko said.

Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda, the United Nations Women's Development Fund (UNIFEM) regional director for East, Central and the Horn of Africa, told journalists on friday that sexual violence against women stemmed from underlying social, economic and cultural values promoting gender inequalities.

"It is a question of attitudes - attitude of the government, the community, the police and the entire society," Gumbonzvanda said. "Change will require collective responsibility by the state, the community, family and the individual."

However, change will come only as the result of legal enforcement brought about by sustained public education, according to Anne Githumbi, chairwoman of the Coalition on Violence Against Women, which brings together a number of nongovernmental organisations and individuals fighting gender violence in Kenya.

"We have to look at violence in a much broader, social, economic, and political sense. It is only at that point when women can hope to achieve their rights," she said.