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Tana River SGBV survivors still endure suffering despite getting justice

A photo of HN from the back during an interview with The Eastleigh Voice in Tana River County. Photo: Farhiya Hussein)

By Farhiya Hussein | 21 Apr 2024

Families of the perpetrators have kept approaching the victims to negotiate their jail sentences seeking to have them reduced.

Five years ago HN, in class five then, was gang raped by seven men, an incident that changed her life, giving it a trajectory she never anticipated.

Despite the perpetrators being sentenced and justice having served its course, the trauma has never shied away and each day, she lives in fear.

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The horror keeps haunting her, as families of perpetrators have kept approaching her to negotiate their sentences in jail to be reduced, this has affected her learning.

"Since that day, I have not known peace, they keep coming to me for consent to reduce the sentences, they have persisted for years and it affects me mentally, "she said.

According to HN, having the perpetrators' sentences reduced will affect the purpose of justice.

However, the families of the seven perpetrators have begun to influence the village, which is fast buying into the idea hence causing her distress.

"I had to repeat a class since it affected my learning, but they didn't stop and it affected my performance in KCPE," she said.

HN remains devastated and feels like from the day she was raped, the world chose to conspire against her.

Her mother, the guardian she looked up to for support, died when she was about to sit her KCPE exams in 2023.

She was left behind with her father who had been drowning his distress in alcohol, hence absent, leaving her to depend on neighbours for survival.

HN remains devastated and feels like from the day she was raped, the world chose to conspire against her. (Photo: Shutterstock)

"My father has never come to terms with what happened to me, and my mother's death made it worse. He became an alcoholic since that day," she said.

Lack of school fees

HN sat for her KCPE in 2024 and managed to score 230 marks, however, two months down the line she is yet to join Form 1 at St. Thomas Aquinas Secondary School in Kilifi County due to a lack of school fees.

She walks from door to door looking to raise money to join the school regardless of the lapse in time.

"I want to join a boarding school so that I can focus on my studies, I want to get away from this frustration and chart a new life, "she said.

Her long hustle ended at the area chief's home, where she currently resides hoping that help would come.

Her only plea is a chance to get an education so that she may forge a better future.

"Help me from this misery, I have tried my level best in vain, I need help," she said.

Elsewhere, MK is living a similar life, a teen and a mother.

Defiled and impregnated in 2020, she sought justice. Despite having won the matter and the perpetrator jailed, she was left to raise a baby on her own.

Despite sitting for KCPE in 2021, she has yet to join secondary school due to a lack of school fees.

"I have tried to apply for bursaries in vain, I can't even afford the uniform and I have no one to leave my child with," she said.

The orphaned girl now lives at a neighbour's house and has to do manual jobs to survive and to get her baby's basic needs.

According to Children's Officer Maria Mbote, the plight of girls who have been sexually abused is bold and of great concern.

"Literally after justice is served, these girls are supposed to be in a rescue centre or an institution that can offer them some counselling and help them overcome the trauma, but we don't have those structures in Tana River, "she said.

She notes that there are more than 200 survivors of sexual gender-based violence in the county that need help, hence the need for concerted efforts between private organisations and the government to find them help.