By CPA Linet Mutegi
Femicide is an intentional extreme form of violence against women and girls (Cecchi.et al., 2022). One of the most prevailing challenges facing Kenya is femicide; while both men and women have seen their lives cut short, more women than men have suffered the atrocity. With the number of victims rising, as shown in the chart below, laws bringing justice to the perpetrators must be enacted.
This will be in line with the constitution’s mandate of the right to life and dignity for all citizens in Kenya. Femicide transcends and surpasses borders, financial status and cultural norms and is a global issue, with the highest rate in 2023 being 21,700 women in Africa. Europe and America had 64% and 54% of all murder victims being killed by their intimate partners in the same year (Agarwal, 2020).
Increasingly, there has been anger emanating from increasing rates of femicide in Kenya, which has led to Kenyans taking the streets to protest, as well as NGOs, Members of Parliament and other organizations calling for swift action to end femicide. One of the demands by the 20,000-plus protestors in 2024 was that femicide be established as a separate legal charge from homicide. The chart below shows femicide cases in Kenya as reported by the Africa data hub. This data is limited to only femicide cases reported on Kenya’s news websites and reported in English.
Source: Africa Data Hub, 2024
Studies found that domestic violence and intimate partner violence were responsible for more deaths than homicides and civil war in some countries. Arguably, several factors have contributed to the intensification of femicide; for one, misogyny has led to the increasing murders of women, and there is increased antifeminist backlash, which seeks to challenge the feminist movement. The feminist movement is largely misunderstood, with many seeing it as a movement that aims to make women equal to men. One of the renowned feminists and writers of our time, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, defines a feminist as a ‘person who believes in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes’ (Lascelles, 2021). Other factors that drive femicide include but are not limited to stereotyped gender roles, gender discrimination, uneven power dynamics between the genders, as well as harmful socio-cultural norms.
According to data by Africa data hub, most femicide cases are perpetrated by a spouse/marriage partner, with killings by strangers being less common than the former. Kenya is culturally reliant, and marriage is deemed a private institution among the bride, groom and their respective families. As a result, most femicide cases perpetrated by husbands go unreported, with involved families opting to settle the ‘matter’ among themselves.
According to the International monetary fund (IMF), violation of women rights is a great threat to economic growth and development with an increase in violence against women by 1 percentage point reduces economic activity by 1 percentage point with the effects being both short-term and long-term. According to the IMF, if Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) nations were to reduce the level of gender-based violence and deaths to 23% which is the world average, SSA could realize long-term gross domestic gains (GDP) gains of around 30% (Ouedraogo, & Stenzel, 2021).
Economic Costs
Femicide presents an economic cost to Kenya, with monies being committed to the prevention, response as well as opportunity costs. In November 2024, Kenya’s president, Dr Ruto, pledged Ksh 100 million to the Safe Homes, Safe Spaces campaign, which is an initiative that is addressing the rising cases of femicide in Kenya. The Federation of Women Lawyers in Kenya (FIDA-Kenya), among other organizations, has asked the government to declare femicide a national disaster and that the Kenya police should work to bring justice to the families of the affected.
A 2016 study conducted by Ngare et al. found that violence to women presented a loss of productivity and income that survivors and victims could attain in the absence of the threat of violence. Additionally, survivors incurred medical care, legal representation, and counselling costs. The lost wages, productivity and potential, are economic costs that the country has to grapple with and cover.
Femicide further worsens the gender parity score of Kenya in the global gender gap index as more women are unable to participate in the labour market and other economic empowerment opportunities. According to the global gender gap index of 2024, Kenya scored 0.866 out of the possible maximum of 1 in the labour force participation rate, indicating that there persists a 0.134 gender gap in labour force participation that needs to be bridged so that parity can be achieved (World Economic Forum, 2024). Chart 1.2 shows Kenya’s score in attaining gender parity. Continued femicide will continue to worsen the inequality among the genders. Femicide works against gender parity and takes the country further away from achieving the SDGs. Femicide negatively impacts the participation of women in education, employment and civic life, which undermines poverty reduction, further worsening economic growth. Lastly, femicide diminishes crucial resources from health care centres as well as the justice system. It is not uncommon for families of femicide cases to seek justice for loved ones years and years after the victim has passed away.
Femicide is dominantly frowned upon because of its moral questionability as well as its illegality, as most countries recognize the right to life of all citizens. While that still stands, the economic costs of femicide must be discussed and factored in when fighting the vice as they deter economic growth. To combat the iniquity, there’s a need for legislation, accountability and a zero-tolerance for femicide. To fight femicide, domestic violence, which often precedes femicide, should be shunned by strengthening laws that punish perpetrators and protect the victims.
References
Agarwal, A. (2020). Why Women Can’t’Stay Home, Stay Safe’: Domestic Violence in the Times of Lockdown.
Cecchi, R., Sassani, M., Agugiaro, G., Caroppo, E., De Lellis, P., Sannella, A., … & Masotti, V. (2022). A medico-legal definition of femicide. Legal Medicine, 59, 102101.
Lascelles, A. (2021). We should all be radical feminists: A review of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s contribution to literature and feminism. Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 57(6), 893–899. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449855.2021.1900414
Ouedraogo, R., & Stenzel, D. (2021). How domestic violence is a threat to economic development. IMF Blog Insights & Analysis on Economics and Finance.
Wamue-Ngare, G., Okemwa, P., Kimunio, I., Miruka, O., Okong’o, G., Kamau, P., … & Okoth, S. (2024). Estimating the economic impact of gender-based violence on women survivors: A comparative study of support program interventions in Makueni and Naivasha, Kenya. Atencion Primaria, 56(10), 102840.
World Economic Forum. (2024). https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2024.pdf
The writer is an adjunct; faculty of Accounting and Finance at KCA University
Email address: mukamimutegil@gmail.com
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