This archive report was first published on 10 September 2019.
Published on September 10, 2019, by NJERI RUGENE, a senior researcher on women's rights and advocate at the Human Rights Watch, reported the death of a woman due to rape and torture by a group of men during the 2007 post-election violence.
Dr. Odhiambo said the woman, whom she had come to know through her situation, had lived a miserable life struggling with poor health as a result of the incident in December 2007. She succumbed to the emotional hurt, trauma, and physical wounds in late June.
According to Dr. Odhiambo, hundreds of innocent women, girls, and men suffered harrowing sexual assault by marauding gangsters in their own country, yet to get recourse or compensation. This disregard for sexual crimes in our society is a cruel reality.
Dr. Odhiambo spoke to 163 women and girls and nine men who survived the brutality in her 2016 report. Despite a commitment and assurance by the authorities, these victims have largely been ignored. Further, according to HRW, these survivors did not receive support to deal with the trauma of rape and related abuse or even medical care from the government when it happened and in the years that followed.
Dr. Odhiambo and other Kenyans have now set their eyes on Parliament in hopes of compensation through The Kenya Reparations Bill 2019, sponsored by Uasin Gishu Woman Representative Gladys Shollei. The bill seeks a channel through which the State can recognize and compensate Kenyans whose human rights have been violated between December 12, 1963, and October 2, 2014.
The Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) report, which was never implemented, covers this period. Victims and survivors of the horrific sexual attacks in the 2007/2008 post-election violence fall in this category.
It is time for the authorities to show commitment to dealing with this criminality through action and desist from empty rhetoric. The fight against sexual violence must go hand in hand with placing victims at the center of it – the healing, protection, and seamless reintegration into society to ensure that after the trauma, they will lead a normal life.
