President William Ruto has vowed to deal decisively with the rising cases of killings of women and girls in Kenya, pledging to provide police with the necessary resources to put an end to the runaway crime.
While stopping short of declaring femicide a national crisis as demanded by Nakuru Governor Susan Kihika, Dr Ruto on Sunday said his government would take the necessary steps to protect women and girls in the country.
Speaking during a thanksgiving service at African Divine Church in Nairobi, President Ruto said police would deal with the criminal part of the crime but called on parents and all Kenyans to take the lead in instilling good morals in their children.
“I want to promise you that we will go out of our way to provide resources for our police to deal with this challenge but equally, as parents, starting with myself, as Kenyans, we must also deal with the moral issue. Let us not finger-point as to who should do what,” the Head of State said.
He stated that every citizen has a responsibility to ensure that the life of every Kenyan is protected, regardless of their gender.
“We are going to have a comprehensive programme on how we are going to address this in a wholesome manner so that we deal with criminal issues but we also apply our minds to moral issues in our society.”
Ms Kihika expressed her disappointment with the police and other security agencies that are supposed to protect Kenyans.
“We want you to whip the security that is supposed to be dealing with these issues. We want to see the perpetrators of femicide brought to book. One life lost is one too many and we cannot afford that. Our sisters are being murdered, our children are being murdered, our mothers and our wives. We cannot continue being silent over this,” she said.
She said that the increasing cases of femicide, including a recent case where the boiled bones of a woman in the Nairobi Cemetery area, were causing fear among mothers and their children.
From left: Vivian Kajaya, Eileen Cherotich, Seth Nyakio and Rita Waeni.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
“We are even afraid of getting out of our houses in the evening… we need to see our security agencies getting serious, we need to see the perpetrators being jailed for life or wherever so that it could work as a deterrent measure for any other person who could think that the life of a girl, of a woman, or a child in this country is worthless,” she said.
Dr Ruto’s assurances came just a few hours after grassroots human rights defenders’ groups, under the banner End Femicide-Kenya Movement, called on him to declare femicide a national disaster.
They made the call during a protest march in the informal settlement of Mathare on Sunday morning where they accused police of sleeping on the job.
The activists said the buck stops with the President and that he should abide by his vow not to allow extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances under his regime.
Just telling women to be careful with who they relate to is not enough, they said, adding that it is the government’s responsibility to ensure security for all.
“We are calling on the president to declare femicide a national disaster and are also calling for a judicial review of all matters relating to femicide to ensure justice,” they said.
The lobby wants femicide cases to be treated as stand-alone crimes and the Penal Code amended to reflect the shift in dealing with this specific crime.
The movement also expressed its worries by the grave reality on the ground where some police officers are accused of abetting the crime by either being the perpetrators or making it hard for victims to get justice.
“We raise concerns that the security apparatus is not taking this matter with the seriousness it deserves. This is evidenced by the casual manner in which femicide is being addressed and the open contradictions between the two arms of security mandated to handle the matters,” it said.
Last week, the Director of Criminal Investigations, Mohamed Amin said that the culprits behind the murders of women in the country were not targeting them because of their gender but were purely motivated by criminal intent.
“We are not saying there is a deliberate effort to target women. The majority of the cases that we investigated show that the motive is purely criminal. There was no intention to specifically target members of the female gender,” he said.
This sentiment did not align with that of the National Police Service Deputy Inspector General David Lagat, who while speaking in the same press briefing with DCI Amin, revealed that at least 97 women had been killed in the last three months alone,
He then said the happenings painted a picture of a troubling trend that highlighted the urgent need for focused actions and collaborations to “tackle the widespread problem of gender-based violence in our society.”
“This has become a critical issue in Kenya, especially with a significant increase in murder and manslaughter cases over the past two years,” he said.
For the human rights defenders, it is not sufficient to have a Gender Cabinet Secretary when duty-bearers take no tangible actions, something that results in the normalisation of femicide in the country, they said.
"We reiterate our call on the President to declare femicide a national disaster and further call for a judicial review of all matters related to femicide," they concluded.
