Justice for Justine

Sauti ya wanawake is a gender rights group championing against Sexual & gender abuse and promoting female empowerment initiatives in Coast province. The organisation carries out community awareness mobilisation, established safe spaces for victims and works closely with the Ministry of Health and Kenya police to save victims and bring perpetrators to book.  In Taita Taveta County, they have managed to tow the line for sexual perverts who had plagued the area with series of brutal gang rapes.Here is one of their success stories.

Justine* almost lost her life, when seven men - three of them her neighbours - gagged and kidnapped her to an isolated building in the wild, where they raped her in turns.

“I was in one of the back houses resting when Osama-as he was reffered to, came with two of his friends asking for some drinking water . Oblivious of any evil plans, I went in to fetch some; I did not know that they had surrounded the house,” narrated Justine, trying not to break down.

After her introductory paragraph, her face swiftly changed from a side smile to blue-eye; she move the braids off her face; I  could read it all over her face - the dawn that was full of life, ended with heavy darkened clouds on Justine at dusk.

“Osama came behind me and kicked my leg which made me fall on the ground. While trying to comprehend what had just happened,  before I could scream, his accomplices ran in the house, and shoved a shirt into my mouth which also blinded me. They carried me through the back door to an abandoned building; all this time they beat me to reinforce their statement that I should not attempt to try anything stupid – like shouting,” she added.

“There they raped me one after another. All this time they were sharpening machetes near my head, promising to send me to high heavens after they were done. By God’s grace, some villagers heard the commotion and came to check what was going on, that’s when the men fled,” Justine nervously fidgeted with her figures. She had an uncoordinated sign-language, painting the horrors of that day all over again.

“My sister was later called; she carried me to Taveta district hospital as I was bleeding profusely. I was examined at the gender recovery center, treated and admitted. The next day Sauti ya Wanawake members came to see me, and really consoled me. They advised my parents to seek legal aid. The women accompanied us to Taveta police station where we filed the case. I identified the three neighbours by name, but later heard that they had gone into hiding. Sauti ya Wanawake mobilised an intensive community search for the men and together with the police had three arrested.”

“The women stood with me throughout the trail period until three of the perpetrators I identified were given sentence 15 years each. I was relieved to get justice and have them punished for what they did to me. I and my aged parents would not have known what to do if Sauti ya Wanawake had not come to my rescue.”

“They came to visit and counsel me from time to time. They promised to sponsor me to do a tailoring course so that I have something to do as part of my therapy; am truly grateful. ” She said smiling for the first time since start of the interview.

During my visit the women had a court hearing on a child molestation case against a well-known paedophile that has escaped justice for years despite ruining the innocence of three underage girls in his home area.

“People told us to stop wasting our time taking Mwilo (the paedophile) to court because he always manoeuvres his way to freedom. But we have stood our ground and we will pursue the case until he is punished just to send a message to other perpetrators” Said the chairlady of the group

Note:Names have been changed to protect identities