BY BEN WAWERU
The Mountain Journal
Halima Adan (not her real name) would have sunk into depression had she not accessed trauma counseling sessions offered through the National Gender Based Violence toll-free 1195 after she was raped by a stranger in September 2020.
While she was somewhat relieved following the arrest of the culprit, which happened a month after the incident, the Isiolo woman in her late 20s is however pained because the case is still pending in court and is not certain when justice will be served.
Photo/ A female police officer at Isiolo's situation room that offered women safe space to report Gender Based Violence during Covid-19 era. Photo/Ben Waweru
Halima was rushing home minutes past the 9PM curfew introduced by the government to curb spread of Covid-19 that broke out in March 2020 when a man accosted her and dragged her into a poorly lit area.
At first, she thought the culprit wanted to rob her only for the heavily built man to shove her to the ground and start touching her inappropriately.
“He strangled me with my hair making me unable to scream. All this time, I silently prayed that police officers who were patrolling at night would pass by and rescue me but it never happened,” she recalls.
He then stabbed her on the left shoulder, tore her trouser and committed the heinous act on her before walking away with her mobile phone and house keys.
She would around midnight be rescued by a motorist who took her to Isiolo Referral Hospital but was not immediately treated as had not reported the matter to police.
“I had to borrow a phone and call a friend who recorded a statement on my behalf and waited for more than two hours to be put on Post Exposure Prophylaxis (after he brought the OB at the hospital),” she says.
PEP drugs help prevent HIV/AIDS infections after possible exposure and are taken either once or twice a day for 28 days.
The cold reception at the hospital made her shun counseling sessions offered at the facility, opting for the toll-free tele-conferencing.
The Covid-19 restrictions, besides prompting a surge in GBV cases in the region, also made it harder for survivors to report abuse and seek help, forcing many to suffer in silence.
“I attempted suicide on three occasions because I felt like I did not deserve to live but the toll-free counseling sessions were so beneficial, especially on mental health well-being,” Halima said.
In a county that is predominantly pastoralist and where the majority of the communities are glued to patriarchal traditions, authorities say there is a possibility that many cases were not reported for fear of retributions or were settled locally through the Kangaroo courts.
Women and girls are expected to obey, respect and submit to men who “call the shots”.
With many women worried that physically reporting abuse would expose them to shame and be targeted by their husbands, toll free 0800721519 came in handy by allowing anonymous reporting of GBV.
Aware of the challenges women faced and the need to ensure they accessed prompt counseling services, the National Police Service in partnership with several actors among them Isiolo Peace Link, PROCMURA, CEED, Star of Hope Association and Kenya Red Cross established a women situation room.
Located at Isiolo police station’s joint operation command centre for handling violence, the situation room manned by a female police officer provided space for women to report abuse and access counseling services.
County Police Commander Hassan Barua says after reporting at the situation room, which also acted as temporal safe house, women would be referred to a gender desk within the station for counseling services.
“They would get psychosocial support and trauma counseling (at the gender desk) and facilitated to undertake the basic processes while security team acted on the case by arresting culprits and initiating probe,” Mr Barua said during a recent interview.
Photo/An officer scans through anonymous messages shared via National Gender Violence toll free 1185 on a screen at joint security command centre at Isiolo Police station. Photo/Ben Waweru
This as some of the survivors we spoke to lamented over what they termed as lengthy referral pathways and lack of safe centres in the county which continues to hamper the fight against GBV with authorities forced to rely on private safe centres which are costly.
Upper Eastern Peace Cops Coordinator, Inspector Julius Mutabari who was part of the secretariat in-charge of the joint operations and command centre says having a female officer at the situation room encouraged women to share their plight.
“Many women lack courage to open up before men (due to cultural beliefs) and having one of their own gives them confidence that they are sharing with someone who well understands their plight,” Mr Mutabari said.
He says due to patriarchy which justifies male domination over women, the latter are not allowed to share sittings with men, let alone contribute to crucial issues such as decision making which makes them naturally fear men.
The official says four cases were being reported daily on average through anonymous calls, reports that were immediately investigated and action taken.
“Ambulances that were temporarily donated by one of the partners helped in handling emergencies reported at the centre on a 24-hour basis,” he noted.
Due to patriarchal beliefs that make it hard for women to confront their abusive husbands, many opt to persevere while very few opt out of the marriage with a negligible number gathering courage to go and report to authorities.
A total of 60 GBV cases against women that included assault, rape and unnatural act were reported across Bulapesa, Wabera and Burat, the county’s most populated wards in year 2020.
Of the cases, official records at Isiolo Police station show, 38 had been finalized. Some 16 girls were defiled during the same period.
The GBV cases reported in the three wards dipped in subsequent years of 2021 and 2022 to 39 and 33 cases respectively, with authorities attributing it to popularity of toll-free numbers.
In 2021 for instance, 34 assault, four rape and one incest cases against women were recorded in police Occurrence Book with defilement cases rising to 20 from 16 in previous year.
At least 30 girls, in primary and secondary schools, had been impregnated by January 2021 according to education officials.
We however had not managed to get the police official police consolidated report of the cases reported at the station and the situation room by the time of going to press.
The situation room, Mr Mutabari says, also came in handy during 2022 electioneering by allowing women to report threats and coercion by men to campaign and vote for particular candidates.
“We received a few threatening cases where men compelled their wives to vote in a certain manner or they divorce them,” he revealed.
He says sustained outreach on the importance of the centre had helped build confidence in the institution, making many women prefer it to usual reporting.
County Commissioner Geoffrey Omoding said women and girls suffered most due to THE COVID-19 pandemic that saw many people lose their jobs and men staying idle at home.
“The interventions by the government including a toll-free number and the situation room helped address the reporting gap and many of the cases have been finalized in court and justice served to victims,” he said while admitting of underreporting of the cases.
The administrator further called for the establishment of mental health sessions across all hospitals in the county to help traumatized survivors who visit hospitals before recording statements with the police.
“There is a need to ensure all survivors regardless of the first place they visit for help access friendly counseling services,” he said.
Gender activist Anab Kasim says the surge in GBV cases during the COVID-19 era was due to poverty, drug abuse, and over-expectation from either spouse.
Ms Kasim says communities practicing Female Genital Mutilation believe it helps prevent infidelity by reducing the urge to have sex and helps attract higher bride prices with those who shun the outdated practice being perceived as outcasts.
“Belief that women should be confined to the Manyatta and their limited access to and control over resources has also exposed them to abuse as men treat them as lesser important persons,” she says.
Ensuring girls transit to the highest level of education and are not married off while young, she says, would go a long way in educating them on their rights and for exposure purposes.
She called for One Stop Shop reporting centres, lamenting the lengthy referral pathways and lack of safe centres that she said were denying victims justice.
“GBV resulted in a surge of child neglect, school dropouts, and early marriages,” she said, warning couples against overstaying in an abusive marriage.
Dr Marvin Chuma, a psychologist, says many pastoral women, for fear of being perceived as the ones responsible for their marriage woes, stay put in their violent marriages, hoping that the situation would improve.
“Some of them open up to fellow women offering them temporal relief but big number of those in abusive marriages sink into depression and face mental health illnesses because they fear their woes could be made public exposing them to ridicule,” Dr Chuma says.
He says sustained sensitization encouraging women to report the cases to authorities and taking advantage of trauma sessions offered at public hospitals and gender desks at local police stations would assist in preventing mental health issues.
This publication was produced with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of BEN WAWERU and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.
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