Killings of Women On Rise in Africa
MURANG’A, Kenya — A wave of gruesome killings of women across several African countries in recent weeks has prompted outrage and indignation, triggered protests and precipitated calls for governments to take decisive action against gender-based violence.
Kenyans were shocked when 31 women were killed in January after they were beaten, strangled or beheaded, activists and the police said. In Somalia, a pregnant woman died in February after her husband allegedly set her on fire. In Cameroon, a powerful businessman was arrested in January on accusations, which he has denied, of brutalizing dozens of women.
The upsurge in killings is part of a broader pattern that got worse during economic hard times and pandemic lockdowns, human rights activists say. An estimated 20,000 gender-related killings of women were recorded in Africa in 2022, the highest rate in the world, according to the United Nations.
“The problem is the normalization of gender-based violence and the rhetoric that, yes, women are disposable,” said Njeri wa Migwi, the co-founder of Usikimye — Swahili for “Don’t be silent” — a Kenyan nonprofit organization working with victims of gender-based violence.
The feminist scholar Diana Russell popularized the term femicide — the killing of women or girls because of their gender — to create a category that distinguishes it from other homicides. According to a U.N. report, the killings are often carried out by male partners or close family members and are preceded by physical, emotional and sexual abuse.
Critics say many African leaders, as well as the police, ignore or downplay the problem, or even blame victims.
On a recent afternoon, Ms. Migwi was leading a training session for girls and women when she was suddenly called to a nearby home.
Jacinta Ayuma, a day laborer and mother of two, lay lifeless, with bloody bruises. The police said she was killed by her partner, who had fled.
Wails of anguish rang in the air as several officers carried the body into a police van. Three neighbors said they had heard someone screaming for help throughout the night. But they said they did not intervene or call the police because the sounds of beatings and distress were commonplace, and they considered it a private matter.
Ms. Migwi said she had seen too many similar cases. “There’s a helplessness that comes with all of this,” she said.
To coincide with Valentine’s Day, February 14, women’s rights campaigners in Kenya organized a vigil they called “Dark Valentine” in the capital of Nairobi to commemorate the women who have been killed. At least 500 women have been victims of femicide in Kenya between 2016 and 2023, according to a recent report by the Africa Data Hub, a group of data organizations that analyzed cases reported in the Kenyan news media.
About 300 people donning black T-shirts waved red roses, lit red candles and observed a minute of silence. “Why should we have to keep reminding people that women need to be alive,” said Zaha Indimuli, a co-organizer of the event.
Among the women whose names were read at the vigil was Grace Wangari Thuiya, a 24-year-old beautician who was killed in Nairobi in January.
Two days before her death, Ms. Thuiya visited her mother, northeast of Nairobi. During the visit, her mother, Susan Wairimu Thuiya, said they had spoken about a 20-year-old college student who was dismembered just days before.
Ms. Thuiya cautioned her daughter, whom she described as ambitious and jovial, to be careful in her dating choices.
Two days later, the police called Ms. Thuiya to inform her that her daughter had died after her boyfriend assaulted and repeatedly stabbed her. Ms. Thuiya said her daughter had never revealed that she was seeing someone. The police said they arrested a man in the apartment where Grace Thuiya was killed.
“This is all a bad dream that I want to wake up from,” Ms. Thuiya said.
Grace Thuiya’s killing, among others, sparked protests across Kenya in late January.
The movement has also generated a backlash, especially online, from men who argue that a woman’s clothing or choices justified abuse. Such comments are disseminated with hashtags like #StopKillingMen.
For now, the killings continue to leave a trail of devastation.
On a recent afternoon, Ms. Thuiya, Grace’s mother, sat cuddling her two granddaughters, 5-year-old Keisha and 22-month-old Milan. She said that Keisha believed her mother ascended “to the sky” and asked if she could get a ladder to follow her.
“It was very painful,” Ms. Thuiya said. “I just want justice for my daughter.”