By Mary Mwendwa
The journey to access justice for Sexual Gender Based Violence victims is usually full of challenges that come in form of threats and delayed justice processes that make most of them give up.Teresa walegwa, a mother of five, had to wait for one year for her mentally challenged daughter who was defiled by a neighbor access justice. Mary Mwendwa takes you through the tiring and challenging journey of how she got to access justice for her daughter.
Teresa Walegwa Wafula, a mother of five from Kibera knows the pain of a parent whose mentally challenged daughter gets defiled by a neighbor.
Her charming and calm talk does not give any impression of a once pained and worried parent when she one day came home and found out that her 13-year-old daughter had been defiled by a neighbor well known to her.
When a judgment was recently passed where the accused was charged with defilement contrary to the sexual offenses Act, Teresa walked home a relieved parent but had to endure threats from the accused family members who kept threatening her because of seeking justice.
But before the judgment, it was a long painful wait as the case took several months from April to November 2016.
She narrates her story;
The Defilement
“It was on 20th April 2015 when I had gone for my salon work at Kenyatta Market when I came in the evening I found my mentally challenged daughter sad, traumatized and scared.”Mama , baba Kioko aliniwekea kitu yake katika sehemu zangu za siri .” Mother, kioko’s father inserted his thing in my private parts.She pointed at her private parts in tears.This was one of the most stressful moments in my life, at first I did not know what to do because this was a very known person to the family and more so he was a neighbor.’’
“I quickly rushed my daughter to Nairobi Women’s Hospital where she was treated and a letter was done by the doctor which I took to Kenyatta police station.I was happy the police helped me and thereafter the perpetrator was arrested on 24th of April, 2016.It was tough for me because of the perpetrators family who kept asking me questions and threatening me because I had taken their family person jail.I was advised by the doctor to keep calm and pretend nothing had happened to keep my plans for seeking justice a secret.”
But before this defilement of her daughter, Teresa carries another pain she has to live with. Her husband took off after the birth of their child who had a mental disability.
“When i got this child my long time husband ran away from us when he realized the child was having a mental problem.”
Covaw’s Role
Teresia says she was referred by a friend to Covaw, (Coalition on Violence Against Women )where she met a team that was very helpful to her.”Covaw took care of my logistical needs in case there was a case mention in court and also they helped the court understand that the prosecution needed more time and the victim needed extra support to because she had a mental disability. Covaw helped me relocate from Laini Saba where i was staying to Soweto in Kibera, which was the much safer place because it became extremely dangerous to live in Laini Saba with threats from the perpetrators family.”
Cases of close family members protecting sexual violence perpetrators are so common in Kenya and this has led to many cases not to get justice for fear of intimidation of the victims and the victims’ families.
According to Maryconcepter Nzakuva, Legal officer, Covaw, most cases that are related to Sexual Gender Based Violence are lost due to various reasons.She points out Teresia’s case as a unique one that finally saw justice rendered to the victim.”As Covaw we swung into action when Teresa approached us and saw the need to help her.She was being intimidated and did not have people to help the prosecution understand the need for her daughter to get help when witnessing before the court.Most cases in similar circumstances are lost due to the many challenges the victim ‘s face and also the lack of courts having specialized care for people with mental disabilities when they appear in courts.
Dr.Joan Nyanyuki , Executive Director, Covaw notes with a lot of concern how sexual violence against women affects their emotional being and how that is largely ignored by the society.”Mental health is crucial in addressing SGBV issues because the scars emotional scars remain with the victims for a long time.People have been accustomed to only see the physical injury and when emotional injury sets in they have no idea how if will affect the victim.”
Dr.Nyanyiki further says how they work with other organizations at grass root level by training them on how to handle some of these issues especially on the emotional being of the victims of sexual abuse.
She calls on courts to be more aware of the mental health issues especially for cases like Teresa’s daughter who needed further specialized care from a mental expert.
“This kind of work comes with challenges too, late reporting of cases where evidence is washed away, low knowledge on an understanding of SGBV , lack of capacity by some law enforcers who handle this cases and corruption are some of the challenges that hinder access to justice for sexual violence victims.”
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