Sexual Violence in Schools: Education Sector in the Dock

It is common knowledge that many sexual violence cases never get reported or at least on time. That can be said with certainty given that some cases come to light when consequences bear out. For example, a case of defilement is reported only when a girl falls pregnant or when other symptoms manifest such as a sexually transmitted infection or when a sodomised young boy starts walking with difficulty. It is important to add that defilements (of especially girls but also boys) top the list of reported sexual violence in Kenya with an average of 60 per cent of all reported cases of Sexual and Gender Based Violence (Health and Police reports). 80 percent of the 609 cases reported at the Gender Based Violence Recovery Centre (GBVRC) based at the Coast General Hospital in Mombasa last year (2012) were defilements. Of these, 20 percent were those of boys (sodomy).

A recent rapid assessment involving stakeholders in Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) prevention and response revealed that most sexual violence cases happen within the confines of homes and schools. A doctor participating in a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) was categorical about living with extend families, her message was “Kikulacho ki nguoni mwako!” - a warning to parents to be careful about hosting relatives.

Coast takes the Lead in Early Sex Initiation!

According to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (2008-09), children and youth in Coast and Nyanza start having sex at an early age. The study found that 27.7% of children in Coast had initiated sexual at ages 8-11while in Nyanza 27.5% had their first sexual experience between age12 and 14.

All these are cases of defilement that can be prosecuted under the Sexual Offences Act (SOA, 2006).
On the other hand, it means sex education is not working - not in school, not at home! Or are these due to early marriages? Don't talk about Female Genital Cutting (FGC) because Western has the lowest proportion of FGC (0.8%) but age at first sex is only at 14.5% for youth aged 15-18 and much lower for lower age groups. Again, while FGC is highest in Northern Kenya (97%),  initiation into sex averages 7% across ages 8-18. So those bent on insisting that girls must face the knife in order to cut on early sexual initiation have no place - As far as I am concerned, FGC is a means to early marriages and both are cases of sexual violence prohibited by law - They are violations against human rights - PERIOD!

KUDOS MR PRESIDENT! Let Women Give Birth and Live to See their Children Play

Causes of neonate and maternal deaths are well known and can be prevented. According to the MDG Report on Africa (2013),  “majority of neonatal deaths result from complications related to preterm birth or complications during birth. Delivering at home without a skilled health-care provider leaves women and babies at greater risk of such complications, and thus accessing health care during pregnancy and delivery is essential for improving both maternal and child health. Simple interventions such as folic acid supplementation, pre-eclampsia and eclampsia prevention, malaria treatment, clean delivery practices and breastfeeding can drastically reduce neonatal morbidity and mortality”.

Male Involvement is Critical in Sexual and Gender based Violence Prevention and Mitigation Programming

Gender based violence takes three main forms – physical, sexual and psychological. All the three have immense impact on individual and societal development. It has now been acknowledged globally that gender based violence is a human rights violation - a crime and that measures need to be put in place to control and even stem out the vice.

In Kenya, reports from health facilities provide evidence that defilement of both girls and boys is rife followed by rape of female victims. Domestic violence, especially intimate partner violence is increasingly being reported in most parts of the country while physical violence meted on women is high in Western and

Youth and HIV in Kenya

Nyanza youth bear the highest HIV burden in Kenya. However, in the great North Eastern Region, more youth than adults are infected (1.0% compared to 0.9%, respectively)

Read more about Youth and HIV in Kenya

Contraception Promotes Women's and Girls' Health

(NAIROBI). As the world celebrates the international day for contraceptive awareness, only two out of five women aged 15-49 in North Eastern region are currently using a modern contraceptive method. For this reason, number of births per woman has remained high at approximately 5.9 (according to the Kenya Demographic Survey (KDHS), 2008-09).

The World Contraceptive Day is a global event celebrated on 26^th September annually. In Kenya, the day is used to take stock of the progress being made in managing the population. The government uses this forum to inform and educate its population on the dangers of rapid population growth as well as the benefits of contraception. Between 1999 and 2009, Kenya’s population grew at one million a year moving from 28.6 million to 38.9 million.

The government has ensured provision of contraceptive methods to all who need them. These are available for free in all government health facilities.

A Prayer for Kenya

LORD, give your servant a discerning heart

A heart to govern your people and this great nation, Kenya

Wisdom to distinguish between right and wrong

Wisdom to rule justly

Like Solomon, our ruler is young

And our nation great and adorned

Let nations hold him in awe

For greatness and glory are yours

Give him the courage of David

And anoint him thus

Cause him to walk in righteousness

And may your glory back him up thus

Like with Moses, you have heard our cry

Strengthen his resolve oh LORD

To lead your people yonder

LORD be with him

Lose your sight not on us LORD we pray

Let not your people falter and fall

Walk us in your path

For greatness and glory are yours

Loosen the chains of injustice

And set the captives, oppressed free

Let barren lands, seas and men bear fruit

And your glory radiate throughout Kenya

All nations will hold her in awe

Marvelling at her prosperity and beauty

And all peoples shall bow before you oh LORD

For it will be your making – world without end

M Mwaila

Silhouettes2

Malindi, April 2012

My next stop, after Nakuru, was the coastal town of Malindi. Being at the shores of the Indian Ocean, a bit of humidity is expected especially for the discerning visitor. The rising and setting of the sun leaves a memorable mark – what with the tall palm trees that seem to usher the godly ball of light in and out of mother earth!

It is here that I receive horrendous accounts of sexual violence meted especially on children (both male and female). Malindi, like Mtwapa is a hotspot for child sex tourism. I remembered a UNICEF study of 2008-2009 on child sex tourism at the Kenyan Coastal region. A social worker related to me how children are being lured out of school to sell sex. Since the hotels no longer condone the ghastly sight of old tourists running around with small girls/boys (thanks to the signing of the code of ethics), the business has shifted to privately owned cottages as beach-boys hone their pimping skills.

Silhouettes

Nakuru, April 2012

The reality of gender violence in Kenya is horrid! The silence in which sexual violence is shrouded is unwittingly annoying and disturbing.

The accounts are well written

On their faces, in their eyes

Engraved in their hearts and soul

The hurt is overwhelming

But, hush! Their lips remain sealed

The voice long gone – a distant hollow

The road to justice, overgrown

A HUNDRED KENYAN SHILLINGS FOR WATAMU

13 primary school going girls are currently pregnant in a school in Watamu, Malindi, Kenya. Most girls had to pay in kind to access one essential basic need - sanitary towels!

You can Help  keep our girls in school by donating a packet of pads that costs approximately Kes.100.-

Send your Donations to:
BoraBora Innovations
Account No. 00201100048738
Equity Bank, Fourways Branch
Nairobi

Obstetric Fistula: A Challenge for Early Marriages

KARACHI, Pakistan, Apr 13, 2012 (IPS) :
As is the custom in the remote mountain village of Kohadast in the Khuzdar district of Balochistan province, Bano was married off as soon as she reached adolescence, at 15, and was pregnant the following year.

There being no healthcare facility near Kohadast, Bano did not receive antenatal care and no one thought there would be complications. But, events were to prove different.

After an extended labour lasting three days, Bano delivered a dead baby. "I never saw the colour of my son’s eyes or his hair. I never held him once to my bosom," recalls Bano. Unknown to her the prolonged labour had taken a toll on Bano’s young body. She had developed a fistula caused by the baby’s head pressing hard against the lining of the birth canal and tearing into the walls of her rectum and the bladder.
A week after the childbirth ordeal, Bano realised she was always wet with urine and reeking of faecal matter. "I was passing urine and stools together."

Bano’s family attributed her condition to fate, her father refusing to visit "due to the bad odour coming from me." However, through those trying times, Khan stood by his young wife and sought medical help.

After Bano spent a year in a perpetually "wet and stinky" condition, her husband finally discovered a hospital in Karachi specialising in treating fistula and other conditions related to reproductive health. "I smell nice now and it’s all because my husband wanted me to get well," said Bano, who may have spent many more years in a miserable state if not for the treatment at Koohi Goth.


Kenya, 2010: Human Rights Watch

Kwamboka became pregnant at age 13 while in primary school, developed fistula, and lived with it for seven years before hearing on the radio about a United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) funded fistula repair camp offering free surgeries. She told us, “I didn’t know anything about family planning or condoms. I just went once and got pregnant.” Despite some government efforts to introduce sexuality education in upper primary and secondary schools, its teaching remains awry given the lack of ownership ( not part of the official syllabus) thus lack of time allocation.

Malindi Kenya, April 2012: M. Mwaila

13 girls in upper primary in a school in Watamu are currently pregnant! Given their immature bodies, all face the danger of developing fistula at childbirth especially considering the poor healthcare and rights awareness within the community, poverty levels, as well as fear of being reprimanded by healthcare workers leading to lack of access to antenatal care. According to a local CBO working on GBV issues, one of the girls said lack of sanitary towels was the major reason girls engaged in sex. Rose (not her real name) intimated that her mother has no money to buy pads. Due to culture, Rose cannot approach her dad because it is taboo for a girl to discuss menses with her father. “Our alternative is to approach men who have cash. They give us money for pads and we pay back in kind – offer sexual favours”.

Need a Husband, Get on Board

Thanks to China's one child population policy, the country now grapples with 41 million bachelors with no spinsters!
According to a report by the Population Reference Bureau, China has for decades suffered an imbalanced sex ratio at birth and is currently facing 'demographic exceptionalism'.
To read more: http://www.prb.org/Articles/2012/china-census-excess-males.aspx

You can Prevent Violence against Children

“While legal obligations lie with States, all sectors of

society, all individuals, share the responsibility of

condemning and preventing violence against children

and responding to child victims. None of us can look

children in the eye if we continue to approve or condone

any form of violence against them.”

– Report of the Independent Expert for the UN Study on Violence

against Children, para. 91

Kenya's Universal Primary Education for Girls not a Saving Grace for Newborn Survival

It is acknowledged the world over that 70 percent of newborn babies die before 7 days of life. In Kenya, according to the 2008-09 KDHS, the proportion is 82 percent. Early neonate deaths, i.e. deaths occurring in born alive babies before they clock 7days. Neonate deaths, on the other hand, are deaths occurring to newborn babies before completion of 28days after birth. Neonate causes account for 60 percent of under five mortality in Kenya compared to 40 percent globally. Neonatal mortality is one of the drivers of high fertility in Kenya.

Kenya has made a lot of progress towards achievement of especially MDG 2: Universal Primary Education (UPE) and is working hard towards the attainment of MDG 4 targets:  Reduce by two-thirds, the under five mortality rate by 2015. However, the UN Global MDG report of 2010 warns that MDG will not be achieved unless great effort is put towards reducing neonatal and essentially, maternal deaths.

Despite great strides toward the achievement of MDG2, a correlation between neonate deaths and mothers’ education using the Kenya Demographic and Health Surveys (KDHS) datasets revealed that women with primary education carried a higher risk of losing a neonate compared to  women with secondary and higher education. According to studies, secondary and higher education helps women to delay onset of reproduction.

To achieve MDG 4, Kenya needs to invest in higher education for girls.

HIV/Reproductive Health Integration

Integrating HIV and Reproductive Health

The Government of Kenya is working towards the integration of HIV and AIDS into the Reproductive Health programming. After realising tremendous success in HIV and AIDS prevention, treatment and care uptake, programmers want to use the opportunity to upscale family planning, cancer screening, maternal and child health and a mirage of other reproductive health services.

The picture below demonstrates how integration starts…….

The How of RH/HIV Integration

An effective integration system will require reorganization and reorientation of health systems to ensure delivery of HIV&AIDS services within the Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) services or delivery of SRH services within HIV&AIDS services. Such services should be offered within a health facility or in a community outreach setting or through a facilitated referral. Health service providers, community health workers and youth peer educators are encouraged to sensitize the community and peers about these services.

Announcement: International Health and Development Communication Conference

Health and Development Communication Conference
June 27-29 2011, Nairobi, Kenya

Most of the challenges facing countries of the Southern hemisphere are rooted in either lack of information or poor utilization of available information. These problems are, in turn, driven by inadequate information, inaccessibility of information and poor skills in communicating the available information. This situation is particularly pronounced in the field of health, where basic information in areas such as public health, disease prevention, health promotion and policies on health care is not in the public domain. Those who generate this information have limited avenues to disseminate it to the public while those in the media with the capacity to communicate the information sometimes lack the necessary skills to access or appropriately communicate the information.

Follow the link below for more details:
http://www.csschange.org/content/international-health-and-development-communication-conference

Trudging under the Yoke of the African Patriachy

A Woman Occupies in Her Man's Heart, the Space She Occupies in His Bed! so goes a Mauritanian proverb.

Just yesterday I read a spine-chilling experience of a young girl (aged 20) who went as far as having a sexual relationship with her father for the sake of being 'Daddy's little girl'! While she stayed in denial yarning for fatherly love, the beastly father continually abused her without remorse. (http://www.genderlinks.org.za/article/i-had-sex-with-my-father-2010-11-25)

As we join the rest of the world in celebrating the 100th International Women’s Day in March this year….

The life experiences shared during the launch of the Kenyan Campaign for the Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality in Africa (CARMMA) chapter late last year ring deep – a fresh wound that will probably never heal. Kenya bleeds from high maternal deaths. A recent report by APHRC recorded a maternal mortality ratio of 706 per 100,000 live births in Nairobi’s urban poor settlements. This truly echoes the sentiment, “the poorest women are more likely to die in pregnancy and childbirth” – WRA-K, 2010.

World AIDS Day Campaign

Did you know that Kenya records approximately 134,000 new HIV infections every year among its adult population (15-49)? And that the highest infections are experienced among married partners and steady relationships?

This December, Make a decision to use a CONDOM for every sex act

Q&A on Prostate Cancer