PART III Extent and Impact of Post Election Violence - Mars Group ...

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Introduction CHAPTER SIX Sexual Violence One of the well known and regrettable tragedies of major conflicts and breakdowns of law and order is sexual violence. This has happened around the world. Sadly enough, it also was a consequence of the 2007 post election violence in Kenya. Like others who either lived through or followed this terrible period of Kenya’s history, the Commission heard anecdotally and from the media about sexual violence against both women and men. These reports, admittedly informal, included heart wrenching tales of rape, gang rape, sexual mutilation, loss of body parts, and hideous deaths. In addition, the Commission also gradually learned that the various forms of genital violence against innocent victims were not just one-off tragedies but major life-changing events. Among others, the Commission heard tales of family members being forced to stand by and witness their mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, and little children being raped, killed, and maimed: innocent victims contracting HIV AIDS after being sexually assaulted because the breakdown of law and order and the deteriorating security situation kept them from accessing medical care soon enough to prevent it: husbands abandoning their wives who had been defiled, and the inevitable psychological burden of powerlessness and hopelessness that left individuals who had experienced sexual violence feeling alone, isolated, and unable to cope, not just for one moment in time, but possibly forever. Worse still, the Commission also heard that some individuals who had lost family members and property, and who had been chased away from the only homes they had ever known, also had experienced multiple forms of violence that included sexual violence. Hearing bits and pieces of these life shattering experiences alerted the Commission to the need to make its inquiries into the sexual violence that occurred following the 2007 election a central focus of its investigation into post 237
election violence. At the very least the Commission thought it would be appropriate to look in depth into the sexual violence that had occurred. Its reasoning was twofold. First, sexual violence is a form of violence and as the Commission was about violence, it felt strongly that there should be a focus on it in the Commission’s investigations. Secondly, being ordinary lay people from various walks of life, the members of the Commission also were personally horrified by the stories of sexual violence that came to our attention. Like others, members of the Commission too felt compassion for the victims of post election sexual violence and wanted to learn and expose what had happened. The Commission also felt that it should do something to make sure that the scourge of sexual violence that happened after the election did not become an endemic in Kenyan life that, could be one day could recur in the lives of ordinary people. The Commission felt it needed to explore the situation given that like others it only heard isolated stories and did not know anything concrete about the sexual violence that happened. The Commission sought to the best of its ability to answer four basic questions to fulfil its mandate to explore the full extent of violence that Kenya had experienced, including sexual violence. First, the Commission wanted to know whether sexual violence actually had taken place. Secondly, the Commission wanted to know exactly what had occurred, how it manifested, and its extent. Third, the Commission wanted to understand, how and why it happened, and fourth what evidence there was for all of the above. Being lay people rather than specialists in the subject of sexual violence, members of the Commission understood that not only did they not have the answers to the above questions, but that they also did not know how to go about getting them. The Commission realized that while armed with reasonable questions and good intentions, it could not embark on this inquiry alone. The Commission needed assistance from specialists who knew Kenya’s social and political landscape, were familiar with the history, causes and nature of sexual violence in general, and who had worked with victims of such violence. The Commission knew that while women normally are the main victims of sexual 238
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