I breathed a sigh of relief on Monday when I heard the outcome of a case that has haunted me and others for nearly two years. A court in Nairobi sentenced three men involved in the case of Liz,* a woman who was gang-raped by six men in June 2013. Finally, three of the rapists were convicted for up to 22 years,15 years for rape and seven years for causing her grievous bodily harm. While the jail term handed down to the three perpetrators is rather lenient—in a country where rape can attract a maximum sentence of life imprisonment—at least they were tried and found guilty. Immediately after the rape, the police had not even arrested the perpetrators; they thought it was punishment enough to have them
Tag: gender equality
Regardless of Election Outcome, Girls Are the Future in Nigeria
On March 28, millions of Nigerians will vote in what many are calling one of the most critical elections in the country’s history. As the incumbent, President Goodluck Jonathan, faces his leading challenger, Muhammadu Buhari—who briefly ruled Nigeria in the 1980s as part of the military regime—the country, the most populous in Africa, grapples with Boko Haram, rampant corruption, and a growing economic crisis. Women and girls have been at the heart of the campaigns and recent crises, but more often than not, depicted as helpless victims or collateral damage. From the 270 schoolgirls kidnapped from Chibok a year ago to the rise of female suicide bombers, the plight of Nigeria’s women and girls is regularly highlighted in the news. Yet these headlines fail to capture two critical