FEMICIDE: Focus On Victim-Blaming And Media Sensationalism.

The year 2024 slithered in cloaked in bone-chilling stories, newspapers brimmed with macabre headlines of brutally murdered women, tales which mirrored the unease that gnawed at the hearts of Kenyans.

According to Femicide Count Kenya, approximately 152 women were murdered in 2023; 16 were murdered in January 2024 alone. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace approximates that 500 women have been murdered in Kenya between 2016 and 2024.  

The question lingers: who are these women reduced to mere statistics? To name a few: Wahu, the beauty queen at the brink of her dreams whose laughter was stolen; Waeni, a brilliant university student with a promising future whose dreams were abruptly extinguished;  and Grace, a young woman newly discovering the profound beauty of nurturing life, motherhood. Each name, a lifetime, a beautiful story untold, cut short, echoing others that dwell in the undercurrents.

Victim-blaming

A debate follows these hideous acts, devoid of ration yet drenched with prejudice: who is to blame? The psychopathic perpetrator? Or the victim. Sadly, the society we live in rushes in to blame the latter. Statements like, “She shouldn’t have trusted him”, “She was a money-hungry prostitute”, “You women will continue to die if you don’t stop going after men’s money!”, “Why should a woman be out at that time?”, “Women should get married early to avoid such”,  and“Young girls in universities and colleges need counselling, they need to stop accepting free things from men” are reiterated frequently.

The focus then shifts from the perpetrator, conveniently excusing their animosity, to the victim’s choices, erasing the core truth: that a woman shouldn’t have to fear existing, shouldn’t be deemed deserving of violence based on the choice of her attire, her sexuality or actions. Knowing very well that every time a victim is blamed, the murderer is affirmed.

Change shouldn’t be about restricting a woman’s life, changing her schedule, lifestyle, attire, or profession, but about dismantling the very structure that breeds violence and misogyny. That is the power imbalance that makes women easy targets, as prey to a predator. Change is about holding institutions accountable, ensuring swift justice, amplifying the voice of the survivors and refuting the culture of woman-hating and entitlement to women’s bodies.

So, what is Femicide? It’s the killing of someone specifically because ’ ’they’re a woman or girl. It’s just like someone silencing a beautiful song just because they think they can. Victim-blaming is holding the victim, either in totality or partiality, responsible for the harm they experienced. It can happen explicitly, through verbal attacks and social media comments, or implicitly through judgement and subtext.

Media Sensationalism

Media sensationalism refers to exaggerating or dramatizing news stories to grab attention and increase viewership or readership.

Now let’s discuss which how these stories were/are being reported; published to capture attention, garner emotional reaction and debate. Advertently blurring the line between entertainment and information.

Focusing on emotionality rather than the factual and objective only compounds the harm and rob the victim’s identity. Here are a few examples:

Graphic details and voyeurism: headlines like ‘Brutal Murders’or‘Dismembered Body’, ‘Decapitated Body Found’, ‘Strangled then Stabbed Beyond Recognition’,or ‘Head Believed to Belong To…’ only serve the human’s psychological morbid curiosity and completely dehumanizes the victims. Such grisly statements reduce the victims’ entire lives into mere details surrounding their deaths.

Unsolicited speculation and victim-blaming narratives: “… the victim is seen walking into the lodging in a short green dress…” and “it is in the wee hours of the night, a skimpily dressed woman walks in accompanied by a man …”, are just a few examples. Such statements implicitly shift the blame and perpetuate harmful stereotypes; a woman dressed a certain way, out at a certain time, at a certain place, doing a certain thing deserves what transpires thereafter.

And lastly, focusing on the gruesome over the systemic; the root cause of femicide is misogyny and gender inequality, but how often is that mentioned? The emphasis shifts towards the victim’s appearance, actions and the horrific details surrounding the event.

The January 27^th #EndFemicideKe protests were not mere picketing but a testament to the collective awakening, a demand for a society where women are unafraid, a call to dismantle these primeval stereotypes. They were not mere spectacles but a call to action.

Each name, each statistic, represents a stolen dream, a silenced voice, a life extinguished not due to fate, but by the brutal hand of hate. Imagine the collective weight of their aspirations, the unfulfilled potential, the love extinguished. Let this weight fuel our resolve, guide our actions and ignite a beacon of hope for a future where every ’ ’woman’s song can be sung, unthreatened, unfiltered, and forevermore heard!