DEFENDERS COALITION INVITES YOU TO JOIN OUR GALANT WOMEN HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS TO SAY NO TO THE CREEPING CULTURE THAT NORMALIZES THE KILLING AND OTHER FORMS OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS IN KENYA AND BEYOND

Saturday , 27January 2024, Nairobi – Kenya

Today, thousands of women human rights defenders and other citizens concerned with unparalleled steep rise in the killings of women in Kenya will be on the streets of major towns to express their disgusts at the heinous crimes of torture, rape, mistreatment and murder. The peaceful protests planned Kisumu, Nairobi, Mombasa, Eldoret, Turkana, Vihiga, Nakuru, Kisii, Machakos, Nyeri, Kwale and Busia shall be a loud statement to call on the authorities to action to protect women from killings and violence but to also condemn the public silence and in some instances distasteful comments on social media that blame the victims.

The right to life is sacrosanct yet in the past few days of January 2024 we have witnessed horrendous tales of how Starlet Wahu, Rita Waeni, Grace Wangari were lured into macabre murders that point to the degeneration of societal values and respect attached to the right to life.

The murders of Rita, Wacu and Wangari are certainly the latest but adds to a larger pile of other murders of women in the recent past. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) indicating that in 2022 only 706 women were victims of femicide in Kenya. The Kenyan media have reported that 8 young women have already been brutally murdered within the first two weeks of 2024.

As an organization that believes in a just society that respect human rights for all, Defenders Coalition reminds the Kenyan government over its obligations to protect human rights and our collective duty to zero tolerance policy towards gender and sexual based violence. There must be unequivocal commitment by the highest office to the protection of human life and the elimination of this vice.

We commend individuals, groups and networks who have refused to sit down and watch the reckless loss of lives by organizing nationwide marches scheduled today, Saturday, 27th January 2024.

Let us all unite as a country that believes that Women Rights are Human Rights.

We appeal to you to join these individuals and groups to demand for social change amongst our communities and homes and turn towards a society that upholds, respects and promotes human rights for all.

We call on you to speak up and let your voice be counted.

#TotalShutDownKE #EndFemicideKE

Kamau Ngugi,

Executive Director, Defenders Coalition