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Femicide in Kenya: What’s causing an epidemic of violence against women?

   January 27, 2024
Femicide in Kenya: What’s causing an epidemic of violence against women?


The murders of two Kenyan women this month highlight the worrying regularity of gender-based violence in the East African country. Activists are calling for more government action to protect women.

Rita Waeni, a 20-year-old student, was killed and dismembered in a small apartment in the capital Nairobi on January 14. Days earlier, a popular Instagram personality, starlet Wahu, 26, was found dead in an Airbnb room, bleeding from a fatal stab wound by a man she met online.

They are just two of at least four gender-based killings reported in Kenya since the start of the year, as the country faces an increasing number of killings and abuses against women, according to human rights groups.

Amid outrage on social media, women say they are planning a protest gathering on January 27 to demand more action from authorities.

Here’s what happened in recent cases, an overview of gender-based violence and what activists are demanding:

What do we know about the recent murders?

CCTV footage showed Starlet Wahu, a social media influencer, walking with a male figure into a shortlet in a middle-class neighborhood in Nairobi on the evening of January 3. The man left the site the next morning with bloody clothing and a possible leg injury, a security guard told police. Wahu was found lifeless with stab wounds and bite marks. Police found HIV test kits and a bloody knife in the room. A suspect believed to be a serial offender has been arrested. Multiple women have accused the same man of previous assaults.

Almost two weeks later, on January 14, the dismembered body of Rita Waeni, a fourth-year student at the Nairobi Agricultural University, was found in a bag dumped at a garbage collection point in the central business district.

Waeni had also arranged a short-term rental with a man the day before, but eyewitnesses said only the man left the room and traces of blood led them to the bag. Waeni’s family members said they received text messages for a ransom, possibly after her murder. Local newspapers report that Waeni may have been lured by her killer via the social app Instagram. Three male suspects are in custody – one was arrested at the airport on the way from Kenya.

Kenyan media have also reported the murder of two other women in the last week. According to police, Christine Aume was cooking in her freestanding kitchen in Homa Bay, western Kenya, when she was attacked and beheaded on January 17. On the same day, police in Kiambu County, central Kenya, found a woman murdered and dumped on a road.

How many women were murdered?

Activists in Kenya say the country is seeing increasing rates of femicide. This is the intentional murder of women or girls primarily because of their gender, usually by their partners or other people they know, such as family members.

The Kenyan government does not collect figures on femicide. However, Femicide Count Kenya, which monitors killings reported in local news, recorded 58 deaths between January and October 2022 that it classified as femicides. In 2023, the organization said it recorded at least 152 killings – the highest number in the past five years.

According to another estimate by investigative platforms Africa Uncensored and Africa Data Hub, around 500 Kenyan women were murdered between 2017 and 2024.

Cases of abuse are numerous. News reports document women being beaten, stabbed and raped. The non-profit organization Usikimye, which runs a hotline for female survivors of violence, says it receives more than 150 calls a day, including from people referring to a third party who has been a victim of violence.

A 2022 nationwide survey also found that about a third of Kenyan women – about nine million women – have experienced some form of physical violence.

Although many of the deaths occurred in private spaces, women in Nairobi say there is a general atmosphere of fear in the city and that they find safety in measures such as traveling in groups because they have little trust in authorities.

“We as Kenyan women are not being listened to,” said Inyika Odero, an activist and model who helped organize a virtual protest and discussion on Sunday after authorities denied her a permit to protest.

“What else can we do except travel in groups and try to get home before dark, which is almost impossible because people have jobs and use public transportation?” Odero said. “We’re not allowed to have Tasers or pepper spray, that’s illegal.”

Why are femicides increasing?

Kenya, like many African countries, has adopted treaties that address gender-based violence, including the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

National laws such as the Sexual Offenses Act also criminalize violence against women. In addition, the Kenya Police has a special gender department. But activists say government policies are unlikely to be effective.

“We have not seen any government-sponsored national campaigns on gender-based violence [gender-based violence] or its consequences,” said Shyleen Bonareri, director of the Nairobi-based Young Women’s Leadership Institute (YWLI).

“The justice system remains sluggish and ineffective in prosecuting perpetrators, and corruption continues to create gaps in the implementation of these ambitious laws,” she told Al Jazeera.

Instead, many women say, there is a deeply rooted “misogynistic” culture that views women as “possessive” objects and focuses on shaming them as victims rather than their male abusers.

As shock and outrage mounted on social media over the killings of Wahu and Waeni, activists point out that some Kenyans, particularly men, have decided to blame women and question everything, starting with the Reasons why they met with the men and entered into shortlets with them.

“It is normal for a Kenyan woman to be ‘disciplined’ by her husband. Some even see it as a sign of affection when a man takes the time to ‘teach’ his wife,” Bonareri added. “Such patriarchal ideas coupled with the structural inequalities between men and women in Kenyan society create a breeding ground for violence.”

What do women’s groups want now?

Many in Kenya are following the ongoing investigation into the murders of Wahu and Waeni. Officials say they are still trying to find suspects in the other two murders reported this week.

Kenya is in a national “crisis”, according to human rights groups. That’s why women are mobilizing to demonstrate later in January using the hashtags #EndFemicideKE, #StopKillingUs and #TotalShutdownKE.

Some like Momanyi say President William Ruto’s government has failed to provide an effective response to the problem, adding that his government is “insensitive”.

Presidential Adviser Harriet Chiggai has condemned the recent femicide cases and assured that the government is taking measures to address the problem.

“Let me reiterate that the government has made an explicit commitment to ending all forms of violence in its women’s agenda,” Chiggai said at a press conference in Nairobi on January 19.

Activists are calling for femicide to be clearly recognized as a crime and for perpetrators to receive harsher punishments. They also want the government to collect data on women and for health and justice officials to be trained so they can proactively identify and protect people at risk.

This year’s deaths are reminiscent of the shocking murders of two top athletes in October 2021 and April 2022.

Long-distance runners Agnes Tirop and Damaris Mutua were both murdered in their homes in the idyllic mountain town of Iten six months apart.

Tirop had just become the world’s fastest runner in a women’s-only 10K road race in Germany, and Mutua, an Olympian, had just finished fourth in another race in Angola. Police suspect that both were murdered by men they knew. Tirop’s husband is now on trial for her murder.





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