108 Women Killed In 2019 As Gender-Based Violence Skyrockets In Kenya

A new year has begun but is there anything to really celebrate for women across the globe with a bias to Kenya?

Violence against women has cost us as a country 108 lives of women, in 2019, who were cruelly murdered by their partners, people they loved and trusted.

Depression, mostly said to be caused by poverty caused by unemployment which is a result of rampant corruption has been blamed for the murder of women in Kenya.

Why Are Women Often the Victims?

1)  “The girl child got too empowered and the boy child got ‘forgotten”, has been the statement used to explain and sadly excuse the acts of the murderers.

Though there is some aspect of truth in the lack of balance in gender empowerment, the rift cannot be used to excuse murders.

We all probably went through gender empowerment wrongly and instead of creating a balance between men and women, it created another bigger and bitter rift.

If the existing rift of empowerment in gender is to blame for the rampant killings of women, then arresting the individuals once the killing takes place is still not a solution as how many more must be arrested and why not avoid the murders first.

2) “The girl child got empowered but the boy child was not ‘prepared’ to coexist with the empowered girl child.

The majority of the murders of the 108 women that have taken place in 2019 have been after they rejected relationship proposals.

Men who result in murdering women when their proposals are rejected are clear proof that when the girl child was encouraged to be assertive, the boy child was never prepared to accept NO.

The girl child has been empowered to say an assertive NO but the boy child has not been empowered to respect a woman’s No and the consequences are 108 killings of women in 2019.

READ: List of Gruesome Murders Of Kenyan Women In 2019 As Numbers Spike

The RECORDED and REPORTED number of women murdered by media houses is 108 which means the number is obviously more as a majority of cases in Africa go unreported.

In as much as arrests are made whenever a murder takes place, the route to justice is a long one and is largely contributing to the spike in murders.

Corruption and out of court settlements are not making it any easier but how many more must be arrested and how many more women must die for the root of the problem to be addressed.

My grandmother used to say if fights have to take place then it ought to be of parties of equal strengths, men that hit or beat up women are the contributors to the 108 murders of women reported in 2019 and it’s a show of cowardice.