Victimizing old women

Early last month, an 84 year –old widow was raped by a 25years known villager .The woman had made plans to attend church together with her acquaintance who lives some miles away .Fate befall when she mistakenly left home before dawn to join her friend .Just a mile away from her friends home, she meet her attacker,

A young man was on his way back home from his mischievous deeds .The innocent woman greeted the young man by name and even announced her mission to him. The man who responded friendly passed her then attacked from behind. He filled her mouth with objects of all kind to silence her, He raped her repeatedly and left her crying pain humiliation and disbelieve.

After a couple of minutes the woman composed herself and sluggishly walked to her friends’ home. She was later to discover her only tooth was gone. Uprooted by the objects the rapists filled in her mouth. Her narration left her friend shocked and embarrassed to give any immediate help, and instead tried all means to conceal the ordeal. By the time she realized the old woman needed urgent help, it was too late. The woman passed away while undergoing treatment at a local hospital.
The shocking news spread like bush fire .The young man was identified and arrested but his parents and family were quick to defend him. The father, a respected village elder termed it baseless and unjustified. With only the body of the victim and no witness, no one willed to pressure on the case. With only a week in custody the rapist was set free.

A couple of months later, the rapist struck again. A couple of women chat excitedly down the river to draw water. Little did they know their excitement was drawing attention to a dangerous man. The rapist, trailed them quietly and hide in a strategic place. He dint wait long as the women hurried back to attend other chores.
With heavy jerry cans behind their backs, they could only manage cat’s steps up the hilly route. Silently the rapist waited until the last woman passed. He followed her, when he felt safe, he covered her mouth and pulled her from behind. Immediately she laid her, she covered her mouth with soil and grass at a point; he used objects to squeeze in more.

All this happened so swift that the woman had no chance to raise an alarm, her friends only noticed her absence when it was already too late. The rapist had already accomplished his dreadful mission. Their voice of alarm though, attracted villagers from all over. The rapist was hunted and caught. The women and the villagers were so furious that they only answer the misery was to burn him to death.
Fortunately for him, the first people who laid hands on him were his first cousins. They saved his blood and called the police. The rapist was arrested but the villagers fear he will soon be let out cage to cause more predicaments.

This young man prefers to rape elderly women to young ones. The question to many is, ``why rape and torment elderly women”? Most likely to the rapist, these older women symbolize an authority figure over whom he wants control, his desire may not be for sex but for the degration , hurt and humiliation of the victim, most likely he get arousal from rage, nervous ,excitement or fear .This young man may also be a woman hater and get easier prey on elder women because of their vulnerability

These kinds of rape cases in the villages are many and unreported; the woman’s own embarrassment also makes it greatly under reported. Sense of shame takes over as she prefers silence to assistance. When I contacted some women for possible answers on under-reported rape cases, one responded, `` If you can’t tell your children that you are sleeping with their father, how then can you say that you’ve been raped? ‘’ at the same time the thought of fingers pointing at you as a rape victim is too painful to bear, she added.
These women require a lot of information and advice on how to handle this kind of sexual violence, this rarely happens as most NGO fighting to end women violence concentrate mostly on urban areas, leaving village dwellers to agonize through their torments alone.

The real shame is not the kind these women who have been raped feel, but the society’s ignorance, indifferent and assumption on the matter. The notion that sex with an old woman or child heals AIDS has raised crimes of this nature alarmingly. Days-old babies met torments too hurting for them to bear.
When a youth in Nyeri turned on her grand mother last week, the whole village went berserk .He was caught and burn a life. The old woman too shocked to speak just gave nods to our curious question. She was cold and frail. Looking around, there was a clear evidence of shock and fear in the atmosphere. An act too appalling and sickening to mention had just been done. No by a stranger, but by a person the woman knew loved and trusted most.

In hospital doctors tried hectically to save her life, but the ordeal was too much for the old woman to recover from. She passed away later. Old women, who have long forgotten about sex; suffer shock when this kind of ordeal come knocking their doors,.
As crimes raise, most people, amongst them the youth are quickly blaming job scarcity and idleness to their actions. But is it really justifiable to occupy own mind by hurting? As all this is happening, our government ears and full attention is all in who will lead who come 2012. Some youth likes of Jimmy Kibaki are busy fighting for notable places - with a new found slogan `roundi hii si mchezo’ .-as they leave the poor in trepidation of what tomorrow truly holds, as they ponder what roundi hii si mchezo truly means.
AS Kazi kwa vijana fills the air and received by the youth with excitement, all we crave for is a more sane nation with oneness and integrity.