Into the much-hyped new Sexual Offences Bill linked to Njoki Ndung'u's name, a clause was slipped that makes (in many cases) the victim of a sexual crime punishable for daring to report it. Clause 38 is one among many other such  niceties, including the explicit legalization of marital rape; this for the first time in East African legal history.

Kenya’s media, true to form, have tried their very worst to keep the ‘real’ contents of the Bill shielded from the public eye. What they reported has little to do with the real new legal regulations that this nefarious law purports to enact.

The entire - and one must indeed say: the entire - sexual offences bill, with all its atrocious provisions, is an offence against humanity. Those who are hit worst by it are not just women; but also all juveniles regardless of gender. Indeed, this bill has betrayed everything that Kenyan feminists have fought for, in the last 3 generations. Everything.

If only I were Milton, whom I have always esteemed most of all English poets, to wield a scything pen of fire, to express my wrath and ire.... But even though he would probably topple the promoters and propagandists of this evil and horrible bill into the deepest abyss of Hell, such merely poetic justice would not achieve much on the ground for the victims of this bill. The victims of people like Njoki Ndung'u, Millie Odhiambo, and many other propagandists and self-servers.

Is there a chance to alter that bill, to reverse it altogether? Maybe. But the enemies, this time, are not the eternal Zinjanthropi and somewhat backward misogynists like Paddy Ahenda M.P. No, the enemies are those who have betrayed decades of feminist work. They are the closeted lesbians who hypocritically condone and even propagate brutal anti-GLB legislation. These are they who do not flinch at brutally criminalizing the near entirety of Kenyan juveniles of either gender, and all poor people and estate dwellers on top of it. The ones who pretend to be children's advocates, but try to silence them, to deny the victims their own standing and their own party rights in court. They are those who in pushing this Bill persecute and endanger the victims, instead of strengthening them, who criminalize consensual sex, yet at the same time explicitly allow marital rape. This has been done, for the first time in East African legal history, by inserting a literal condonement clause in the bill.

There is a gender war going on, be there no doubt about it. But the real enemies here, of womyn, girl children, straights and queers alike, are not men in general. And not even deviant and oppressive and misogynistic men in specific. No, the real and most pernicious enemies are their own "activists", who again have shown themselves to be a class of vampires and leeches, and true ogres more often than not. How good it would be, if such organizations, of which there are many, would be the allies of women and girls (and, indirectly, also the allies of men and boys who are victims of sexual violence), and not their sworn foes.

Take FIDA Kenya. Their recent campaign with regard to gender violence (somebody apparently has siphoned off a bit of donor money, so that the thoroughly neglected and cobwebbed FIDA website could be updated for the first time in 2 years).

It's called "Sexual Violence Campaign in Kericho", a brilliantly evil, dark pun. The double-entendre itself would be worthy of Borat ("a sexual violence campaign? Where can I participate? What are winners' prizes for the best rapist?"). I am not at all sure whether the pun was intentional at all but the evil brilliance of it is, that indeed in Kericho a true "campaign" of sexual violence mostly against women and girls, but occasionally also against boy children, seems to have been on for one year now. Just have a look and see the continuous horror:

http://www.fidakenya.org/campkericho.htm

It is so distressing and angering. And keep in mind that these reported incidents are not even the tip of the needle. For every one 12-year-old house help raped by her employer, who actually sought help with FIDA (case of May 06 in the list), there are 50 or 100 who do not. These are the helpless, the voiceless and the economically dependent; and all those who have been taught to blame themselves.

There is nothing in the new law to help this girl. It victimizes her even further and when she grows to be 16 or 17 and has - probably for the first time - a loving relationship with a boy of her age, this law then threatens them with a ten year prison term for finding sexual fulfilment in it. The bar-owner, who served the two young enamoured people a glass of Tusker before they went home hand in hand, is also in for a mandatory minimum sentence of 5 years for merely serving the drink, in knowledge or suspicion that a carnal union was intended.

"An offence against humanity" - indeed !

Lastly, lest one feel that my essay has personalized the argument too much, an admission. Of course, the bill (and now act) is not bad because those who engendered and hatched it were bad (Millie Odhiambo, Njoki Ndung'u, and let's not forget Moire O'Sullivan). It is rather the contrary: these people are to be judged and condemned themselves, because they fought for such a thoroughly evil and horrible bill, betraying all the hopes and confidence that their constituencies had set in them.

A debate on sexual laws and sexual politics will have to concentrate on concrete issues, not leaving out prejudice and sexism (Paddy Ahenda style) when and where it can support a noble and just purpose. The issue here is neither the public hanging of N.N. in Uhuru Park (as desirable as this may be), nor the punishment of this or that individual rapist or child abuser. Rather what is necessary, is not so much the very occasional and whimsical application of a cruel and exaggerated sentence, to the delight of some bloodthirsty revenge-seekers; but rather the diligent prosecution and swift sanction of all offences with high certainty: what this bill paradoxically has made rather impossible now.

First we ought to address the necessary interlink of sexual offences laws, reproductory laws and family laws. As I wrote already, time and again, even though the actual nitty-gritty of the legal work may often be a piecemeal deal, going step by step, the approach must be holistic. One cannot aspire for liberty while propagating oppression.

The second issue is to create a workable and practical law. A law that does not presuppose conditions and institutions that will not exist in Kenya within 20 years, a law that can be equally applied to all, and is not so overblown that it will only be used in some capricious cases of personal feud and vendetta against a few hapless poor, while most of the culprits will go scot-free. It must not compel the police, prosecution services and the judiciary to shrink back from sexual offences even more than they already now do.

Finally we need a law that defends the poor and disenfranchised; the victims, instead of persecuting and oppressing them specifically. Insofar, this argument even has to do with ‘class’. Of course, such a thought is very un-Kenyan. It's a nation that will jeeringly applaud, with reliability, whenever its weakest are smitten and trampled upon.

Alexander