Sexually assaulted babies
When I was a young girl in lower primary, there was tragic news that boys from St Kizito School had raped and killed several of their fellow female students. That was in the nineties. I thought then that was madness, but today I do not know what to call the goings-on in Kenya.
There is a frighteningly high increase of reports of defiled children. It is probable that the problem is deep-rooted and the big difference could be because previous cases were not being brought to the attention of the authorities and the press.
Many months back, on one 25 December, while people were celebrating Christmas, a 28-year-old stonemason was busy raping his five-month-old baby; his very own blood. He extensively tore the baby’s genitals and rectum. Seeing the infant on a hospital bed moved many to tears.
So where are we heading to? Why have men become so beastly, attacking innocent lives that cannot even protect themselves? Why does a father rape his own child? Will such a child ever forgive her father, when she becomes an adult and understands what happened?
The increased cases of sexual abuse are a great shame to our country. The vice has become so rampant that on a daily basis, the media highlights a crime or several crimes against children. What is even more alarming is that people who are supposed to protect those children—fathers, uncles, grandfathers, cousins— are the ones turning against their own daughters, nieces, grandchildren and cousins.
Baby girls a few months old are sexually violated. Boys have also not been spared: they are sodomised! No one is safe in a society filled with evil. There seems no place to hide and only God can protect us from ourselves.
Even as they grow older, children are not safe in their schools either. In boarding schools, students bully their fellow students to the extent of sodomising them. Our girls are not safe in or out of school. If they avoid rape outside school, a teacher will be waiting for them inside the school to abuse them sexually! In an incident in Nairobi, a parent stormed a well-regarded school and caused chaos after learning that a certain male teacher was sexually harassing her daughter. I believe that is the sort of action every parent should take!
Lastly, life and dignity should be respected irrespective of age. We should all agree that harsh penalties, very harsh sentences indeed, are needed to punish perpetrators of sexual violence. These cases must also be channelled through an efficient judiciary system, even if it means creating a special court for rapists. That way, they can be brought to justice and punished faster.
END: BL 05/59