16 Days of activism: Why femicide is Kenya's silent epidemic

According to the European Institute for Gender Equality, femicide is the most severe form of gender violence. It is a manifestation of the existing power imbalances that can make the female gender be treated as less deserving of human dignity. This is the root problem that has resulted in more than 600 violent female deaths in Kenya from 2016 to 2023. The bone-jarring, back-to-back news of women killed in Kenya in 2024 has prompted many women and their allied organizations to term this issue an epidemic. Femicide is now brought into the light in a big way, although the larger, more persistent cancer is the unassuming, masked aggressions that women face every day. Many women manoeuvre through this sad reality by moving in silence, enduring, and adapting to these hurdles that society has created over time.

This issue is a culmination of interlinked spaces and mindsets that have failed to uphold female dignity. Just as the foundation of the issue is interlinked, solutions that will work must also be multidisciplinary to address the root causes. Solutions must encompass:

1. The role that communities must play in combating femicide
2. The effectiveness of laws and policies in dealing with infringements of human rights against women
3. The engagement of men in anti-femicide action plans and discussions
4. The challenging of cultural norms that perpetuate violence against women

The current advocacy and this article focus on a more urgent matter: achieving community pressure, which can expedite national policies to address femicide. Unless the governing systems prioritize dealing with gender violence, all other sectoral programs will lose some of their strength. The harnessed voices in this campaign will not only make the issue known but will also create demand for enhanced provisions to stop femicide. The existing cultural attitudes will largely shift once the political and governmental barriers are broken. Electoral positions, such as women representatives, should loudly and strategically work with non-governmental bodies to change the narrative. The judicial systems should also work to bring to justice the perpetrators of such murders.

This is a call for action to all stakeholders create a safe society, and rally together to ensure women's rights are upheld by all.

By

Caroline Wanjiku Kamau

Project and Volunteer Manager at Blessed Citron