Human Rights Activists Want Government to Categorize Femicide as Murder
Technical Working Committee on Gender-Based Violence Chairperson Nancy Baraza flanked by Kilifi human activists address the media in Kilifi town. (Photo By Ronald Ngoba).
y Ronald Ngoba
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Kilifi County human activist defenders have challenged the government to enact a distinct law that will categorise femicide cases as special forms of murder.
They said that, currently, legal provisions treat femicide as ordinary homicide, failing to acknowledge the gender-based violence motives behind such acts.
The stakeholders when presenting their submissions to the Technical Working Committee (TWC) on gender-based violence (GBV) in Kilifi town, also called for stiff punishable penalties against the culprits.
“Femicide is a gendered crime that should be treated as the most grievous form of murder. We need legislation that recognizes this distinction,” said Betty Kabari, an activist from End Femicide Kenya.
Also, she proposed the introduction of legal timeframe within which sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) cases must be resolved to ensure survivors get timely justice.
“Some of the victims follow their cases up and to some point they give up on them, because it takes like six or even more than ten years before justice is denied and that one discouraged the victims to report,” she added.
The forum is part of the government public engagement interventions aimed at gathering grassroots GBV views and come up with a report, which will be submitted to President William Ruto.
The TWC has already held similar engagements in Kisumu, Nairobi, Meru, Nakuru and Kilifi being the fifth to host it.
However, the idea to categorize femicide separately drew mixed reactions from the judiciary.
Kilifi magistrate Ivy Wasike raise concerns over the legal equity, warning against creating gender specific punishments without looking into its broader implications.
“Currently, the ongoing conversation is about women being killed because of their gender but what about tomorrow when we begin seeing men being targeted for the same reason. Are we going to create another special law for that?” she posed.
According to her already a number of men in the country are silently suffering gender-based violence.
Kilifi County director of Gender Georgina Dulus noted that only one femicide case had been recorded by the directorate of criminal investigations (DCI) in the county and the rest were classified under general homicide or murder.
“This shows a glaring gap in how these cases are documented and prosecuted. We real need a legal framework that provides clear definitions that distinguishes femicide and other forms of GBV,” Dulu said.
Former deputy chief Justice Nancy Baraza, who chairs the committee, assured activist players that their concerns would be captured in the final report which would be presented to the President.
“The President gave us a clear directive as this is part of his manifesto. As of now, we are working hard to hand him an actionable GBV report,” she said.
The committee also noted that the absence of a legal definition of femicide, along with dedicated legal mechanism, has been a major gap in addressing the crisis.
During the forum, it also emerged that the police is the weakest link in the fight against GBV with victims often re-traumatized when reporting cases at police stations.
