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

violence when order breaks down, men too had experienced horrid types of
sexual violence after the Kenyan election. These included sodomy, forced
circumcision, and even mutilation of their penises. Between hearing of women
who had been gang raped and mutilated, the accounts of ethnically driven
sexual violence against certain men was also horrifying. Furthermore, the
Commission also understood that any inquiries it might make into sexual
violence would also involve interacting with victims. The Commission
appreciated all the sensitivities associated with doing so, including the usual
problem of finding victims who would agree to discuss what had happened to
them.
The Commission wanted to make its inquiries into sexual violence part and
parcel of all of its investigations into the post election violence that engulfed
Kenya after the 2007 election. The Commission knew, however, that to do so it
would need the help of experts. Fortunately, there are a number of groups in
Kenya who work around the theme of sexual violence. These agreed to assist in
all parts of the Commission’s work, both before the Commission took evidence in
Nairobi and while gathering testimony in the countryside. In Nairobi, the
Commission held three planning meetings with civil society organizations that
address sexual violence, including those who had worked on these matters after
the elections in Kenya. In the middle of the crisis, forty organizations in Kenya
came together to reach out to women and others who had experienced sexual
violence following the 2007 elections. They gathered under the auspices of the
Inter-Agency Gender Based Violence sub-cluster co-chaired by the United
Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) and the National Commission on
Gender and Development. This umbrella group included a variety of different
groups from departments in the ministries of gender and health, and the
judiciary, various UN agencies (e.g. UNFPA, the United Nations Development
Fund for Women (UNIFEM)), the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, and
from various local and international non-governmental organizations (NGOS).
Even before the Commission began its sessions, the sub-cluster had responded
to the post-election sexual violence, particularly against women, including
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