Kenyan Female Medical Students Should Speak Up Against Sex Abuse
Commentary by Jeff Kanani, Editor, Ajabu Africa News, posted December 2, 2011
The Capacity Kenya, a non profit organization supporting the health workforce in Nairobi, recently released a report indicating that male lecturers in Kenya’s medical colleges are asking female students for sex in exchange for higher grades.
A survey of Performance Needs Assessment of the Kenya health training system, 2011 released two weeks ago found out that cases of sexual abuse are common. Female students are being coerced into sex by the offer of better grades or the threats of bad ones.
The report highlights a trade for bogus exam grades and the dangerous games that lecturers play with the students. It also raises familiar questions about Kenya’s institutions of learning policies, the obligations of lecturers to protect students and the exact definition of sexual misconduct on the part of the lecturers.
Although the government of Kenya or any of its agencies doesn’t accurately track data on sexual abuse cases in those colleges, the reports are coming to the public with thunderous ferocity.
A joint report in 2009 by the Teachers Service Commission and the Center for Rights Education and Awareness found that more than 12,000 school girls were sexually abused by their teachers in a span of five years ranging from 2003 to 2007. More than 600 teachers were caught.
These two reports highlight the extreme danger that lies within the weaker laws that govern the institutions of learning in Kenya and the sexual misconduct by some of the teachers and the lecturers.
All government agencies including college authorities went silent after the release of the college findings. There has been no public outcry and there is no word that authorities will investigate incidences of sexual abuse in the medical colleges, making the findings both meaningless and a waste of time.
Just like other reports of immoral behavior and crime that afflict the Kenyan society, leaders from every sector including the civil society ought to speak out.
Even though the report fails to detail the number of victims affected and the actual impact on the quality of education, it’s clear that female students are being forced by male lecturers to have sex that they don’t want.
What is even more disturbing is that the report is coming at a time when the quality of education in many countries around the world is under scrutiny. For example, there are numerous reports that some supervisors in many Egyptian universities are misleading some doctoral students. Education is our society’s biggest investment. No one wants to lose it, or even tamper with it.
Most people will agree that like any criminal case, gathering enough evidence to prosecute is a staircase going up. The challenge is for the government of Kenya together with the educational institutions to establish a standard reporting system where the affected students can trust.
The loopholes in Kenya’s education system are so wide that even rapists find their ways into the classrooms. One way is to strengthen our laws regarding the way we deal with sex offenders in our learning institutions.
A unanimous support of women’s laws against sexual abuse has lacked even in the Kenyan parliament. For example, at the height of the debate in 2006 for the passage of the Kenya’s Sexual Offense Act, 18 female members of parliament walked out of a debate. They were protesting against a fellow Member of Parliament Paddy Ahenda’s remarks that many Kenyan women were too "shy" to consent to sex by saying “yes.”
Kenya’s sexual offense Act came into force in July 2006. But for the country to go the extra stretch to criminalize sexual offenders, authorities will need streamlined medical reports and the victims to openly come forward to help the prosecution; both of which are challenging.
One of the biggest obstacles victims of sexual abuse in Kenya face is the legal redress. Few can afford court expenses, medical examinations and some of them lack understanding of legal procedures.
Several reports indicate that many sexual assault victims in Kenya face "insurmountable obstacles" in reporting their cases. Reports have shown that some victims are forced into resigned silence because they won’t be taken serious by the law enforcement officers, some fear embarrassments while others fear stigmatization.
Some people have argued that more women in Kenya should train to prosecute sexual abuse cases against women. It may make sense but whether it’s a giant step towards saving women is up in the air.
Female college students have an obligation – at least to themselves – to speak out. They are the only ones who can report such cases. Their voices are the only first line of defense.
If these students continue to keep quiet, it will be increasingly difficult for the laws against sexual abuse to function in a country where victims don’t speak.
It might cost more but training and establishing specialized reporting centers for these institutions isn’t a bad idea.
