‘We want to move to Uganda’: Mt Elgon women relive trauma as political campaigns revive sexual violence memories

By  Moraa Obiria

Senior Gender Journalist

What you need to know:

• Women in Mt Elgon region say they have been raped by armed groups and political thugs during past election seasons, in 2007 and again in 2017.
• Some survivors are now planning to flee to Uganda until the 2027 polls are over, fearing a repeat of the violence.

Martha* turned 18 in 2007, when Kenya was heading into a General Election.

While the year marked her entry into adulthood, she wishes she could permanently erase the way life ushered her into that new phase. Instead, it has remained fresh, returning with each election cycle.

That year, Martha, from Cheptais in Mt Elgon Constituency, Bungoma County, says members of the Sabaot Land Defence Force, an armed group that operated in the region between 2005 and 2008, killed her husband. She says his head was chopped off.

She was left with a one-year-old daughter and a life that quickly became difficult.

Mourned alone

Martha had left school in Form Two and married young. One night, as she mourned alone in her house, she says members of the militant group broke the door open and gang-raped her.

"Please, I don't want to go any further about that night. I just wanted to die," she says. "But who could take care of my daughter?"

She struggled to forget what had happened, but the memories never left.

"I would wake up at night screaming, begging them to stop," she says.

A decade later, the memories returned with the 2017 election campaigns.

Martha says she was cooking when men knocked on her door and demanded that she open it. She refused. They broke in and, she says, raped her in turns.

She says the attackers were supporters of one of the politicians in the area during a period of highly contested campaigns.

"When you talk about politicians and campaigns, I don't feel my body," she says.

Moving to Uganda

She says she has received trauma counselling through a local community-based organisation, but the wounds have never healed.

"It's fresh. I still smell those men," she says.

Martha now wants to leave the country and return after the elections.

"I just want to find money to move to Uganda," she says. "I'll return when the elections are over."

During the last election, she says, she moved to the home of another woman who had also been raped. They spent long nights in prayer, sleeping little and waking each day physically drained.

"We were always tired, dizzy and had headaches," she says. "We couldn't go to the farm. I don't want to go through that again."

Christine* is also considering moving to Uganda for a while, until the elections are concluded.

In 2017, Christine was pregnant with her third child when political tensions gripped Cheptais. She says she was also gang-raped at night.

"I knew the men," she says. "But I couldn't report them to the police because, at that time, you don't know who is on whose side. What if I reported them and they came back to kill me?"

She says her husband was also killed during the tensions, leaving her to raise their three children alone.

"I don't understand how women are pulled into the political differences of those people called politicians," she says.

"They did not see us campaigning. They did not see us following those politicians, yet they come looking for us in our homes."

Christine has also received counselling but says therapy has not helped her answer the question of why the men could decide to be so inhuman to her.

"You know, any time I hear 'Sifuna this, Sifuna that' or 'Gachagua', my whole body shakes and I sweat a lot," she says. "I don't know what to do to get over this."

Her biggest concern now is keeping herself and her children safe as another election approaches.

"I'm assessing the situation now. If I see we are not safe, I'll take my children and go to Uganda until things cool down," she says.

Documented cases

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights documented 123 cases of sexual and gender-based violence between April 2017 and March 2018, which it says occurred during a period marked by intense political contestation, civil unrest and protests.

Bungoma was among the counties where violations were documented, including in Kimilili, Bumula and parts of Mt Elgon, namely Kapsokwony, Cheptais, Chepkurkur and Kapkateny.

Norah* has spent years helping women in Mt Elgon who were raped during periods of political violence, drawing on her own experience of surviving rape in 2007.

She says she started the work in 2017, after returning to Mt Elgon from Nairobi, where she had received counselling and shared her own story.

"It was very difficult to share my story," she says.

Her work has since grown into a community effort. In 2023, she says, they started 13 groups that make up a community-based organisation, creating spaces where survivors can meet, talk and support one another.

Talking is part of healing

Norah says talking is part of healing.

"When you are alone, you feel like the world has come to an end," she says. "When you talk, it helps."

She says she sometimes speaks to survivors herself and also works with a group of counsellors. Other times, she says, they meet families and check on survivors struggling to cope.

Norah says several survivors are also struggling with the real consequences of the violence. Some, she says, have children to raise from the rape with little support, while others have been forced to leave their homes or are going through difficult marriages.

Beyond listening, she says, she helps survivors explore ways to rebuild their lives, including acquiring skills and securing funds to start ventures that could help them become self-reliant.

She says they were among more than 500 survivors who registered with the commission for compensation and reparation following the creation of the Panel of Experts on Compensation for Victims of Demonstrations and Public Protests in August last year.

However, only 36 were verified, she says, with the majority unable to provide supporting documents, including a police report number and a hospital examination report.

Engaging political parties

Meanwhile, Anne Wang'ombe, Principal Secretary in the State Department for Gender and Affirmative Action, says the government is working with the Embassy of Spain on a programme to train police officers to respond better to gender-based violence and other forms of violence.

"First and foremost, we need to do a lot of awareness," she says. "We want to go out as women and say we do not want violence in the next elections at all."

She says they are also engaging political parties and other groups to discourage rhetoric that could fuel violence.

"We can't do it all on our own. We need everyone, including faith leaders," she says.

Names marked with an asterisk are pseudonyms used to protect the survivors' identities.