Where do broken bodies go? Lack of shelter exposing survivors to abusers

In July, Ms Emily Nakitare (not her real name), 31, suffered a beating so bad that she almost died. The beating was from her husband of eight years.

Throughout the marriage, she had persevered regular beatings while living in her matrimonial home in Uthiru, Kiambu County.

In December last year, she suffered an ankle dislocation after a beating. She was then one month pregnant and had two sons aged 14 and seven.

With the help of friends, she moved out with her second-born and rented a room in Uthiru. She sought treatment at Kiambu Level 5 Hospital, with financial support from friends. Her first-born went to stay with his biological father in Mai Mahiu.

It didn’t take a month before she welcomed her husband to her new rental room.

“I was going hungry. I had no money. It felt like I was staring at death with my baby in the womb and my son with me,” says Ms Nakitare, who dropped out of school in Standard Six.

Covid-19

In her mind, her husband, a casual labourer at construction sites had reformed. Then in April, the beatings resumed. A day rarely went by without the usual kicks or shove. He struggled to provide for them, she says. There were no more jobs for him as Covid-19 had led to suspension of construction.

“He got easily irritated and was always drunk. At that time, asking him for money was asking for a kick or a slap,” she says.

Then one day in mid-July, he arrived drunk after 7pm. His demand for food, which was unavailable, ended up with him pouring his frustrations on her with kicks and blows. He would have killed her had she not screamed, attracting neighbours who came to her rescue. They chased him away.

A friend later took her and her son to a rescue centre in Karen, where on August 29, she delivered a healthy baby girl.

For almost three months, she and her son were under the care of the centre. She was counselled and trained on how to make liquid soap. She was also mentored on how to be assertive and confident, she says.

By the end of September, Ms Nakitare says she was desperate to start a new life and build a better future for her children.

Baby clothes

Luckily, at the time, a consortium of NGOs rolled out a program to assist survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) by giving them funds. This is an intervention that Cabinet Secretary for Public Service and Gender Margaret Kobia lauds as an effective way of giving survivors a lifeline.

Ms Nakitare received Sh7,000, out of which she spent Sh4,000 to rent a room in Uthiru. She bought baby clothes for hawking, worth Sh2,000, and spent the rest on other necessities.

“I am at peace now. All I want is to start a fast-food business to raise an income and rebuild my life,” she says. “I had to stop hawking the clothes since I feel so much pain on the leg when I walk for long; I haven’t healed well yet,” she says.

Ms Nakitare accounts for the many cases of gender-based violence that occurred daily between January and June, this year, leading to a 92.2 per cent surge as reported by the National Crime Research Centre (NCRC) following President Uhuru Kenyatta’s directive in July.

She is lucky to have secured temporary shelter as lack of safe spaces is a nightmare for survivors.

County-funded shelter

The privately-run shelters across the country are either full or cash-strapped, and are not able to take in more survivors.

The State has not established shelters except for Makueni, which launched a county-funded 14-bed safe house in June.

Shelters are referred to variously as transitional centres, safe houses and rescue centres. A survivor is expected to stay there for not more than two weeks. Each shelter provides services ranging from counselling to training on livelihood programmes. This is, however, pegged on availability of funds as they are usually donor-funded.

Estimates for privately-run shelters are scanty, however, there are 40 spread across 15 counties and are currently registered with the National Shelters Network.

“On a daily basis, I get at least five requests, but I have no room for an extra survivor because my shelter is full,” says Ms Edith Murogo, who runs Talia Agler Girls Shelter and is also the convenor of the network.

Social protection

Creating space for new cases requires reintegration of the survivors who have been sheltered for at least two weeks. But this is not the case as some have absolutely nowhere to go or their families are totally dysfunctional.

With few shelters, more and more victims remain in abusive environments.

While shelters offer survivors an opportunity to reflect on their lives, a lack of exit strategy for a proper reintegration, presents another challenge in tackling SGBV.

“It is not enough to offer survivors a shelter. What next after the shelter? How will they reintegrate with the community without falling back to the arms of the abusers? They need some form of social protection like the cash transfer schemes,” says Ms Murogo.

Centre for Rights Education and Awareness (Creaw Kenya) Executive Director, Ms Wangechi Wachira, says studies have proved the efficacy of cash transfers in rebuilding the lives of SGBV survivors. Creaw Kenya is part of a consortium that has offered cash transfers to 80,000 SGBV survivors from March, when Covid-19 struck Kenya. The survivors, both male and female, are from seven low-income settlements in Nairobi County including Kibera, Kayole, Soweto and Gatina. Others are Mathare, Majengo and Maringo.

Resilient Fund

“As much as we are doing the cash transfers, we are doing this for a few months. It is important for the government to take it up as social protection for SGBV survivors,” says Ms Wangechi.

In partnership with other organisation, the NGO has established a Resilient Fund from which survivors will receive Sh15,000 grant and access to low-interest interest loans to be disbursed through a local bank.

Even as women will seek to rebuild their lives, the wheel gets stuck in the justice system dragging them through the years of turmoil as was evident during the Covid-19 period.

Failure by Chief Justice David Maraga to give an advisory in April, on prioritisation of SGBV cases when courts scaled down operations raised queries over the Judiciary’s commitment in tackling SGBV.

During this time, rights organisations petitioned the CJ to prioritise SGBV cases to accelerate the survivors’ access to justice.

On shelters, Prof Kobia says the government has instituted guidelines on their establishment to ensure they are not converted into avenues for exploitation. She envisions a country free from SGBV by 2030.

*Emily’s name has been changed to protect her from further harm.

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