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Women MPs yesterday recounted the harrowing ordeals they underwent at the hands of their violent spouses in recent months. The lawmakers, who met to mark 16 days of activism against gender-based violence (GBV), regretted that despite reporting the vice to the police, they have not been able to get any help.

Some of the police stations, they said, were actually the ones protecting the pepperpetrators of the vice.

While some of them narrated stories of how people known to them have been subjected to GBV, forcing them to intervene, others narrated their personal experiences.

Gladys Boss (Uasin Gishu Woman Representative), Mary Kitany (Aldai), Jane Kihara (Naivasha), Ruweida Obbo (Lamu East), Fatuma  Abdi Jehow (Wajir), Pamela Njeru (Embu), Naisula Lesuuda (Samburu West), Roza Buyu (Kisumu West), and Udgoon Siyad (Garissa) said GBV has no social status as it can affect any individual.

 Said Lesuuda: “Gender-based violence has no respect for social status; it can affect anyone and that is why we are seeing even MPs being affected.”

Shollei, who was the first to speak on the matter, shared with the lawmakers her plight as a victim of GBV, regrettably getting no assistance from the police.

No protection

The Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly said she reported an incident to the police, seeking protection as her life was threatened but she did not get any help.

She explained that even her efforts to get a restraining order against her tormentor did not help and she was thus forced to get protection from villagers.

“The biggest enemies of fighting GBV are the police. I have personally, as an MP, reported incidents to them; but none of them was acted on. They did not even offer me security despite me getting a restraining order from court. I had to seek help from young men in my village,” she said.

Her statement comes two years after her marriage to Sam Shollei was dissolved, following irreconcilable differences.

The magistrate issued an order stopping her former husband from accessing their homes in Kitisuru and Plateau Estate in Eldoret due to his violent conduct. “I have carefully considered the petition. It is clear the marriage has experienced serious turbulence in the past few years. The parties herein have serious disagreements that led to their separation,” the magistrate ruled.

Evicted from home

Kitany, on her part, narrated how she suffered at the hands of her spouse in 2018 when she was evicted from her house. The police did not help, she said.

Instead, police officers came with the perpetrators to evict her, yet she is the one who needed protection, she recalled.

“Gender-based violence has been with us forever. I am glad that today we can speak about it. In 2018, I was evicted from my house; I called the police to help me but to my surprise the officer commanding police division (OCPD) is the one who came to evict me.

“I wondered why the OCPD would escort someone to evict me. That is when I decided to go through the court process and many people came to know about me, not because of my work, but because I went public as this whole issue was like a soap opera. Anytime this matter came up, it was aired live on TV. However, I am happy because I have used these problems to sensitise other people,” she said.

Kitany moved to court seeking protection after now-Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi threw her out of the house. She told the court that she married Linturi in 2016 after undergoing Nandi and Meru customary rituals. However, the court dismissed her divorce case, saying she failed to prove that she was legally married to the former Meru Senator.

Kihara, on her part, told the gathering that, although she was not personally affected, she was forced to build two safe houses to accommodate young girls who had been raped. She added that rape cases  in her constituency have been growing by the day.  “When I was elected to Parliament in 2014, I was told I had been elected as “the MP for Rape” due to the high number of such cases. I was forced to build two safe houses where girls could seek shelter. I still take care of the two houses,” she said.

Obbo narrated how she was also forced to build a safe house to accommodate a girl who had been repeatedly raped for more than seven years by her step-father, yet the mother was not reporting the incident to the police for fear of being divorced.

They had sired five other children.

Njeru explained how she recently rescued a woman who contested in the last General Election, after she, together with her two-month-old baby, were locked up in police cells yet she was the one who had been assaulted by her spouse.

Fatuma narrated a case she is dealing with, of  13-year-old girl. The girl was raped by a man and was taken to a police station for help. To their surprise, the officer on duty made all efforts to frustrate the case, as he is a relative of the perpetrator.