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

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powerlessness of Kenyan women in many areas of life may have made potential witnesses shy away after considering that the potential cost of their testimony far outweighed any perceived expectations that they may have had for obtaining justice. Furthermore, some cases of sexual violence against men that took place after the 2007 elections were hitherto unheard of and new to the Commission and to Kenya. The tragic novelty of this experience meant that there were even fewer support groups available to men than to women. That, added to the humiliation of the violations meant that no male victims came forward to testify to the Commission, something the Commission understood, but nevertheless found regrettable. The Commission heard from witnesses, some of whom were specialists or had treated victims of sexual violence, and others who were victims. The former testified in public about the character, magnitude, and extent of the violence. This permitted the Commission to learn much about what had happened, approximately how many people were affected, and how various organizations had responded in the face of this crisis. Others, mainly victims, testified mostly in private. The private hearings began in Nairobi after which the Commission heard from victims of sexual violence in Naivasha, Nakuru, Eldoret, Kisumu, and Mombasa, but not in Kisii where no victims came forth. Public Testimony by Expert Witnesses The Commission received testimony from three specialists on sexually based violence, most of whose work has been with female victims. These were: Millicent Obaso, 203 a Sexual and Gender Based Violence Advisor for CARE International who also is an HIV/AIDS Advisor for East and Central Africa; Jane Onyango, the Executive Director of FIDA Kenya; and Dr. Sam Thenya, an obstetrician gynaecologist, and Chief Executive Officer of the Nairobi Women’s Hospital which established a Gender Violence Recovery Centre (CVRC) in 2001 that has been a 203 CW 10 243
Mecca for women. They discussed the post election sexual violence in Kenya between December 2007 and March 2008 and their encounters with it. They told the Commission that sexual violence was rampant during this period consisting mainly of rape and gang rape, defilement, genital mutilation, sodomy, forced circumcision, and sexual exploitation. Millicent Obaso’s testimony discussed the horrific experiences of women in Kibera and Mathare where her organization had worked. There her organization collected information from 40 victims, and analysed in depth the cases of 13 of these victims. She the Commission that most victims were poor women who had been raped in their own homes by youth, gangs of up to 20 men, GSU personnel ,and some police officers. The victims ranged in age from 25-68 with over 62% being married, widowed or divorced, and 38% single. Slightly over 61% had attended primary school, 15 % secondary school, and 23% had never been to school at all. Most were still homeless or living in IDP camps, having lost their possessions, livelihoods, and homes. Ms. Obaso recounted several terrible tales from victims of sexual violence which not only hit women worst but which she told the Commission, was the direct consequence of existing inequalities between men and women in Kenya, and something that affected the way in which husbands responded to the rapes of their wives and daughters. She explained that over 75% of the individuals her group interviewed said they had been raped at home in front of their spouses and children, causing a great deal of stress that resulted in their being abandoned by their husbands. As she explained, “the man came, the father of the house and when he found that his wife had been raped and the same man raped his daughter and rapes his daughter-in law, he said I am finished with [this]; I cannot deal with this. I am going to find myself another woman, [b]ecause this is the biggest taboo in my home and I cannot even be cleansed and who are the perpetrators” 204 204 CW 10, with the remainder of this witnesses discussion and quotations drawn from pp. 233‐42 244
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PART III Extent and Impact of Post Election Violence - Mars Group ...

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