Domestic Violence: The Sad Truth

Laws and Policies on SGBV

There are a number of Laws and policies in Kenya that guards, protects, advocates and Champions the Issues Surrounding Sexual Gender Based Violence.

Laws

These Includes the following;.

• The Constitution 2010 
• The Penal code 
• The Criminal Procedure Code 
• The Children's Act (2001) 
• The FGM Act( 2011) 
• The Sexual Offences Act (2006) P

Other than the above mentioned laws, there are also policies that Strengthens the said laws.

Policies

These includes the following:

• The National Gender and Development policy  
• Gender Equality and Development, Sessional Paper No.2 0f 2006 
• Kenya National HIV/AIDS Plan 2005/6-2009/10 
• National Guidelines on the Management of Sexual Violence 2nd Edition 2009 5
• National Framework toward Response and Prevention of Gender Based Violence in Kenya December 2009

Sexual Gender Based Violence Is becoming a pervasive form of Human Rights Violation.Down here is a summary of alarming statistics On SGBV.

Statistics.

1. The 2008-09 Kenya Demographic Health Survey (KDHS) investigated women’s experience of sexual violence, including whether the respondent’s first sexual intercourse was forced against her will.
2. Force at first sexual intercourse is not uncommon among Kenyan women; 
3. 12 percent of women age 15-49 report that their first sexual intercourse was forced against their will. 
4. Women whose age at first sex was before age 15 are more likely to report that their first intercourse was forced than those who initiated sex at an older age. 
5. KDHS report also indicates that one in five Kenyan women has experienced sexual violence – meaning almost 21% of all Kenyan women have experienced sexual violence 
6. In the vast majority of cases, sexual violence is perpetrated by persons known to the victims; strangers accounted for only 6 percent of sexual violence. 
7. Women who have experienced sexual violence reported current husbands or partners as the perpetrators, followed by current or former boyfriends. 
8. It is worth noting that among ever-married women, sexual violence is perpetrated mainly by current and former husbands and partners. 
9. Among those who have never married, the violence is committed mainly by boyfriends, although almost one in five never-married women (19 percent) has been violated by a friend or acquaintance and almost as many by a stranger (17 percent). 
10. On sexual violence and conflicts -The Waki Commission that investigated on Post Election Violence noted in the Report that sexual violence occurred not only as a by-product of the collapse in social order in Kenya brought on by the post-election conflicts. 
11. It was used as a tool to terrorize individuals and families and precipitate their expulsion from the communities in which they live. 
12. Investigation of sexual and Gender-Based Violence formed one of the toughest tasks the commission undertook even though it was not the only aspect of cases they encountered. 
13. According to the Waki Report, only 900 cases of sexual violence were reported across the country and a myriad went unreported. 

Root Causes as Well as Root Impacts of Sexual Gender Based Violence

Root causes 

• Social norms and culture - The root causes of sexual and gender-based violence lie in a society’s attitudes towards and practices of gender discrimination, which place women in a subordinate position in relation to men 
• Patriarchy – male dominance, power and control that lies on what culture defines masculinity to be. 
• Drug and substance abuse – as a contributing factor to the root causes 
• Poverty- perpetrating hopelessness in a society and idleness 
• Lack of respect for human rights – lack of information on this and abuse of the same. 
• War and Conflicts- especially when sexual violence is used as a weapon 
• Cultural Altitudes – peoples negative perceptions and beliefs 

Root Impact

Health consequences 

1. Intimate partner and sexual violence have serious short- and long-term physical, mental, sexual and reproductive health problems for victims and for their children, and lead to high social and economic costs. 
2. Sexual violence in some cases – causes the transmission of HIV. Such Violence fans the spread of HIV and AIDS. 

Social and economic costs

1. The social and economic costs are enormous and have ripple effects throughout society. 
2. Women may suffer isolation, inability to work, loss of wages, lack of participation in regular activities and limited ability to care for themselves and their children. 

Psycho-Social consequences

1. Most societies tend to blame the victim/survivor. This social rejection results in further emotional damage, including shame, self-hate and depression. 
2. As a result of the fear of social stigma, most victims/survivors never report the incident. 

Sexual Gender Based Violence as Violation of Human Rights

The acts of sexual and gender-based violence violate a number of human rights principles enshrined in international human rights instruments.

Sexual Gender Based Violence has become a pervasive form of Human Rights violations'
These lndudes;

• The right to life, liberty and security of the person. 
• The right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. 
• The right to freedom from torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment. 
• The right to freedom of movement, opinion, expression, and association.
•  The right to enter into marriage with free and full consent and the entitlement to equal rights to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution. 
• The right to cultural, political and public participation, equal access to public services, work and equal pays for equal work.

Understanding Sexual Violence. What is Sexual Violence?

What is Sexual Violence;

Any sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act, unwanted sexual comments or advances, or acts to traffic, or otherwise directed, against a person’s sexuality using coercion , by any person regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting, including but not limited to home and work.( WHO 2002).

Definition of sexual violence in the IASC guidelines

According to the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Sexual violence “any sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act, unwanted sexual comments or advances, or acts to traffic a person’s sexuality using coercion, threats of harm or physical force, by any person regardless of relationship to the victim, in any setting, including but not limited to home and work.”

Forms of Sexual Violence

• Rape 
• Marital Rape 
• Child Sexual Abuse, 
• Defilement and Incest: 
• Sexual Exploitation 
• Forced Prostitution (also referred to as sexual exploitation) 
• Sexual Harassment 
• Sexual Violence as a Weapon of War and Torture Forced 
• Sodomy/Anal Rape 
• Attempted Rape or Attempted Forced Sodomy/Anal Rape 
• Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting(FGM/C) 

When Democracy Is in grave peril

Ever wondered what happens when politicians succeed at deciding who has the right to elect them? The outcome is that democracy is in peril.

Consider this, in 1948, with World War II and the struggle against fascism fresh in their minds, drafters of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirmed the right to "universal and equal suffrage" as a basic human right.
Yet the aspiration to universal and equal suffrage in the USA, which helped define the civil rights struggle in the 1950s and '60s, now appears to be losing its luster. Instead of continuing to serve as an ideal, policies involving the right to vote have been diminished by politicization of the franchise. Instead of promoting a universal right to vote, many elected officials now seek ways to narrow the franchise, finding ways to limit it, to mold it.

Some lawmakers are making it more difficult to vote, primarily through voter identification laws. Thirty Two States considered legislation this year that would create or tighten picture identification requirements for voting. They are also limiting voting hours. Ohio recently reduced the hours for early voting on nights and weekends -- steps that disproportionately restrict low-income and minority American citizens' ability to vote.

Some go so far as to push for disenfranchisement.  Almost six million people in the U.S,  overwhelmingly minorities and disproportionately low-income -- have lost the right to vote due to felony convictions. Several states impose a lifetime ban from voting booths on felons, regardless of the individual case, requiring either an act of clemency or legislation for reinstatement. Two states, Florida and Iowa, have recently rolled back efforts to make it easier to reinstate voting rights.

And some have shaped the vote by gerrymandering. Through redistricting, they've shaped districts to serve their own electoral success and the interests of their party. The United Nations Human Rights Committee has warned about the dangers of politically motivated gerrymandering, stating that, "The drawing of electoral boundaries and the method of allocating votes should not distort the distribution of voters or discriminate against any group and should not exclude or restrict unreasonably the right of citizens to choose their representatives freely."

Distressingly, some officials even celebrate these steps.  One Pennsylvania legislator pointed to restrictive voter registration laws as the reason why his preferred presidential candidate would win the state. An Ohio elections official defended the state's reduction in voting hours by writing this, "We shouldn't contort the voting process to accommodate the urban -- read African-American -- voter-turnout machine."

Surprisingly, supporters of these measures argue they're driven by the need to protect the integrity of the vote. Yet they do so without concern for their impact on the universality of the vote. They don't accompany voter identification requirements with programs to facilitate broad access to free picture ID. They don't match restricted voting hours with broader mail-in voter opportunities. They don't link efforts to remove non-citizens from voter rolls to comprehensive efforts to register recently naturalized citizens.

The ideal of the universal suffrage should drive policies on voting in the United States. A commitment to universality can neutralize gerrymandering through creation of independent redistricting commissions like those found in Washington or California.

A commitment to universality does not contradict voter integrity efforts. Yet policies developed to promote voter confidence or vote integrity policies must fit as part and parcel with the overarching commitment captured in the Universal Declaration. Without this commitment, voter integrity policies risk undermining, rather than fostering, democracy.

This should not be a partisan concern. When politicians succeed at molding the electorate, at deciding who has the right to elect them, then democracy is in grave peril.

About my Blog

Ever wondered what happens when democracy fails? What happens when We experience Massive Violations of human Rights? What happens when our Women and girls are subjected to Sexual Gender Based Violence (SGBV)?.
Sexual Gender Based Violence according to available statistics is becoming a pervasive form human rights violations.
Many people really don't know these foms of human rights violations exist in our Societies. Even though a number of cases are reported to authorities such as the police stations, a myriad number go unreported. In the Waki report, around 900 Cases were only reported, but may other cases were not captured.

If you look at the TJRC report, Issues of SGBV have been widely reported.

To this extend, few people understand the rights they are entitled to. More so, SGBV Survivors do not know where to seek Justice. As a result of this, I have decided to champion these rights that have for a long time been Infringed. More often, I will post in this blog to enlighten and help direct on where to get / seek Justice.

I am passionate about bringing to an end SGBV and since they go hand in hand With Issues of advocacy and Governance, I will ty to dress these Issues more often here.
Please support me in disseminating My articles On such topics. Let us an fight Sexual Gender Based Violence In Kenya.