More needs to be done about rape cases

Today marks the last day of “16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence”. According to UN Women, this is an annual international campaign that kicks off on 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. It runs until 10 December, the Human Rights Day.
Activists launched the event at the inaugural Women’s Global Leadership Institute in 1991. It is now an annual event, coordinated by the Centre for Women’s Global Leadership. It is a strategy used to call for the prevention and elimination of violence against women and girls, supported by the United Nations Secretary-General’s UNiTE by 2030 to End Violence against Women Campaign (UNiTE Campaign). This year, the theme is Orange the world; Generation Equality Stands Against Rape.
The theme speaks to us as a country, especially with the recent increase in documented cases of gender-based violence. What is heartbreaking is that on almost every day of the campaign this year, there are reports of at least one new incident of rape!

DEFILEMENT

What is even more gut-wrenching is that a lot of these incidences have involved minors. In the practice of obstetrics and gynaecology, a large percentage of our clients are healthy women seeking routine services.
For this reason, last week was one that left a foul taste in my mouth. It was meant to be a week when any advocate for women’s reproductive health and rights would much rather be spending time creating awareness about the need to end rape in all its forms. It ended up instead being about dealing first hand with the victims of this brutal crime. The week began with a case involving the defilement of a minor by a fellow minor who is a close family member. Aside from addressing the physical well-being of the child, there is a huge burden of dealing with family dynamics. The raw emotions involved that are often never adequately addressed.
The conflicts that arise while attempting to deal with the offender who may be too young to realise the consequences of their actions and is also in need of help. It is tough knowing where to draw the line and what constitutes crossing those lines. However, things are crystal clear when an adult sexually assaults a young child. It is an excruciating experience to have to attend to this little one. If we, the caregivers, are this devastated, it means that there are no words that can even begin to describe what the little one went through! For those who may not understand why it is a big deal to talk about ending rape for 16 days, allow me to paint a picture of just what this campaign is about. Our little patient faced a horror that no one should ever have to go through. She was snatched from her home in the wee hours of the morning.

TRAUMA

The perpetrator took her to a bush, bound gagged and raped her. He then left her still tied up, unable to move, in the pounding rain to bleed and freeze to death. That she survived long enough for the police to find her is nothing short of a miracle. She had to keep reliving the excruciating details over and over again. First to the police, second to the primary medical team that received and stabilised her, and lastly to the specialised care team that took her to the operating theatre. Despite the extensive physical and psychological trauma, she had endured, she was physically and mentally numb through this.
The physical damage she suffered is horrifying. Her genital tract was mangled up, torn up so severely that her large intestines were falling through and her anal sphincters were destroyed. It took the surgeons hours on the operating table to bring her back to anatomic normalcy. She pulled through the surgery like a champ, but that is just the beginning. At her young age, she has a mountain to scale. She has to take antiretroviral medication to protect her from HIV, antibiotics to prevent bacterial infections and pain medications to ease the physical discomfort. This is the easier bit. Then there is the psychological and mental scarring that will require lifelong therapy to keep her grounded. She just survived a nuclear bomb! The police are still looking for the perpetrator. On Tuesday last week, the Daily Nation ran a story of a 12-year old minor raped by her father and upon reporting the matter to the police, ended up locked in police custody instead. Worse still, are the reports that the father is being permitted by the same people tasked to protect the minor, to threaten her into dropping the charges.

NEWS

Stories like this should make us all livid! Angry enough to be individually galvanised to action to end this brutal crime. No girl, boy, woman or man, should ever have to live through such a dehumanising and brutal ordeal. Sixteen days are not enough to talk about these heinous crimes. It should be a daily conversation!
Our gender-based violence recovery centres are doing a great job of taking care of these extremely vulnerable ones. It is expensive and takes a lot of commitment to ensure both physical and psychological care is provided for the prolonged durations required. Also, let us not forget the families who are affected. I can only imagine the mental anguish of a mother who feels like they failed their child by not being able to protect her from this catastrophe.
Rape is a life-threatening condition!