06/02/2023
Gender based violence incidents on the rise at the Coast, cases unreported for fear of stigma.
By Thurea Teryane Mwadzaya
Mombasa County Gender based champion Caroline Adhiambo is urging women facing violence in their homes to report these cases as a deterrent measure. Addressing the media in Mombasa, Caroline said victims of domestic violence suffer shame and fear reporting in a bid to protect their marriages. “I faced violence in marriage 10 years ago, my husband would beat me, but I persevered in silence, my sister would nurse me after the beating, as she passed by my house daily, the situation grew worse and that is when my sister confronted my husband threatening to send him to jail”, Caroline said.
Habiba Achieng, a mother of 2, living in the County says she survived beatings from her husband, for the desire to belong in the society. She says although being a housewife with no income, her husband would beat her every time he found no food on the table. “My husband beat me daily, anytime he missed food on the table, he beat me up. I did not want to fail my parents by leaving him, I did not want my peers who we engaged in a merry-go-round chama to see me without a husband, I suffered in silence as he beat me in view of my daughter who watched in silence”, sobbed Habiba.
According to Caroline, women need to be strong and not be reluctant in acting against violence for them to remain sane and support their children. “I recall when my husband and his brother beat and bruised me, they left me in pain and travelled to Uganda. It is my sister who took me to hospital where I underwent an eye operation. Once I healed, I became an ambassador of GBV, I knew other women were in similar or even worse situations and I decided to save them through advocacy", explained Caroline.
Salim Suleiman, the Director at Haki na Usawa, a human rights organization, has urged the 7 women Governors to provide programs that will spearhead mentorship and entrepreneurial skills to women, to minimise GBV cases in the country. “We have sorted out about 45 percent of gender-based cases in Migadini area and we forward them to other organisations to enable thorough tracking and compensation of cases so that the women get justice”, said Salim. Despite assisting victims of GBV, Director Suleiman says most victims are still reluctant to open up and seek help. “We seek collaboration and partnerships with both the government and the society so that we can fully achieve zero cases of GBV to have peaceful families", said Salim.
Vespus Chenja, a Psychological Counselor at Mariakani Sub-County Hospital, says the widespread disinformation that women who report such cases are failures in marriage, has seen many women in situations of violence choose silence. “It is a burden to the women who suffer GBV as their children may end up being brutal. They are likely to build up hatred in their lives and it ends up becoming a cycle. We have at least 60 cases of children raised in violent homes, ending up isolating themselves”, said Vespus.
A good number of women in the Coastal region of Kenya contend with different cases of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). The available data from the toll-free help line set by the Kenya’s State Department for Gender in the Ministry of Public Service and Gender to assist victims of violence, show that cases of GBV in women increased by 116 in August of 2020. Psychological abuse is recorded as the leading type of abuse having 1360 cases of women while physical assault recorded 601 cases of violence against women.
According to the data, many of these women are unable to report or open due to societal norms that condition them to believe that a good woman must protect her marriage no matter the challenge. Other women fear the shame and ridicule the society subjects those forced to leave their marital homes.
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