Femicide has been a trendy topic in our country for the past few months with every attention deprived Jane Doe sharing their very acidic opinions, some being popular and some not so much. Femicide has varied definitions depending on where you look, but all of them basically translate to The intentional killing of women because of their gender. Now the popular opinion seems to be that Men are the perpetrators and this is backed by the fact that “In 2021, an estimated 81,100 women and girls were intentionally killed, with 45,000 (56%) victims killed by an intimate partner or family member (UNODC)” very worrying figures if you ask me because this roughly translates to 6 women and girls killed every hour solely by intimate partners or family members.
The matter became of deep concern to Kenyans after a series of gruesome murders happening in different areas of Kenya most of which were from sexual partners they had met Online. This followed by comments from Men who are leaders, influencers and even the idle man in CBD who clearly was just looking for some relevance in a conversation he had no knowledge on, sparked outrage and terror In the hearts of Kenyan Women and what was a social media Skirmish,Soon turned to a nationwide hashtag which then turned to a campaign which climaxed with Nationwide demonstrations and protest #ENDFEMICIDEKE #TotalShutDownKE
The famous power of women was finally visible to the whole of Kenya and for a full day they got the attention of the whole Nation.On the 27th of January 2024, Kenyan women Made History. One of the main causes of femicide is masculine privilege which can be associated with Gender roles especially here in Africa where a woman is supposed to be a certain way and a man to do certain things, well that was how it was and clearly the women of the century decided that’s not how it’s going to be. The men who clearly feel threatened and intimidated were very quick to argue that they were angry because the women wanted to have it both ways. They don’t want the responsibilities of “Feminine duties” Yet they still want to take advantage of “feminine privilege’ ‘ whether this is true or not is up to you to decide but even if so does that warrant death?
When I was a child I was taught that I should avoid and run away from strangers and I should under no circumstances take sweets or gifts from strangers. Funny enough I always pictured the stranger to be a man. I figure my parents really wanted to protect me and they realised the best way to do that was to teach me how to be safe and to protect myself from the stranger but I suppose that is the easy way not our way right?. Our way is to show the stranger that we are strong, that we are together and that we are ready to march and if “HE”dares touch any of the children again we will come together in herds, but we still want the sweets} not that we can’t buy our own sweets we just prefer having two sweets so we can eat one and still have one.
We should remember that Inaction is not the way but some actions are inaction. Addressing femicide requires a multi-pronged approach that tackles its root causes, not just the immediate consequences, not to mention we should understand that we need everybody on board for us to end femicide. In the words of my Mentor ‘how your saying what your saying matters more than what your saying” #IAMAGAINSTFEMICIDE
Written by BRIAN KING BRIAN@MTOTO.NEWS
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