Femicide is not homicide: Urgent, specific actions need to be taken
By Irungu Houghton | 16h ago
Nairobi to protest against the rising femicide cases in the country. [Collins Oduor, Standard]
This yearâs 16 days of activism against gender-based violence campaign seems set to take on greater significance. With the substantial spike in femicide cases, it is time for new agencies and actors to join the faithful feminists who raise awareness and demand that men stop killing women.
Femicide is very different from homicide. Femicide is the killing of women because they are women, Professor Awino Okech would school us. Treating the deliberate dismembering and demise of women and girls as the usual homicide statistics blurs this rising threat.
Deputy Inspector General of Police Eliud Lagatâs call for a national response while revealing the police are handling one death every 24 hours over the last three months was welcome if not deeply worrying. Combine this and Africa Data Hubâs findings that four out of five cases are perpetrated by people who intimately knew their victims.
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