Kenyan men reveal shocking reasons for stripping women

  Women and activist demonstrate on the streets of Nairobi to protest the recent undressing of a young lady in Nairobi over indescent dressing by the the touts. This was on 17/11/2014. PHOTO BY PIUS CHERUIYIOT  

She screamed in terror. They stood and watched. Nobody moved to rescue her.

The young woman without a name was violated in broad daylight, in her country, by men who thought her skirt was too short. Filthy male hands tore at her, touched her in places no stranger should and savaged her in public like a caged animal.

Similar scenes would be captured in Mombasa, the Globe Cinema roundabout and inside a matatu in Githurai. By last week, a male police officer was standing in the dock for groping a 16-year-old girl in a matatu in Kayole. An evil wind was spreading like a wild bushfire, causing stampedes and fear. Women were outraged. However, the newly-formed Anti-Stripping Squad (ASS) has so far swung into action and identified the Githurai matatu in which the woman was molested, in addition to arresting the touts who assaulted the woman in Kayole. Who are these men stripping women in public? Who let the dogs out?

The answers are as shocking as the repercussions of the women-stripping madness.

According to a survey commissioned exclusively for The Nairobian and conducted by GeoPoll, a research firm based in Washington DC in the United States, Kenyan men are hitting back at women because they feel women are favoured by the government.

More shocking is that women agree that they show too much flesh these days, and that ladies should dress modestly in public.

Asked whether men are retaliating against women because they feel ‘sidelined,’ a whopping 60 per cent of the respondents drawn from across the country - Lamu, Nyeri, Machakos, Meru, Kisii and Siaya - agreed. Only 30 per cent of the men said they are neither sidelined nor retaliating.

This could be a backlash against numerous affirmative action initiatives aimed at uplifting women, and particularly the girl child. Such initiatives, which include government funds for investment, lower mark for admission to public universities and the feeling that women applicants are favoured during employment, have caused heat in the past.

Boycott sex

Early in November, Maendeleo ya Wanaume chairman Nderitu Njoka even called on men to boycott sex to fight for their rights because, “Men have been neglected by the government even in formulation of policies, with many biased towards women and youth.”

Could this perception that women are ‘having it too easy’ be driving jobless and disgruntled male youth to harass young women in the pretext of teaching them a lesson for dressing indecently?

Be that as it may, this stripping saga caused such a national furore that 70 per cent of Kenyans, both male and female, were aware of the #MyDressMyChoice protests held in Nairobi by angry women and men. The awareness was highest in Nairobi (84 per cent) and among women (73 per cent).

Curiously, more men (56 per cent) polled in the survey by GeoPoll were supportive of women dressing as they wish, against only 52 per cent of the women. The survey shows that 59 per cent of Nairobians felt that women have the freedom to dress as they please. Female youth aged between 15 and 24 supported this freedom more than any gender or group at 63 per cent.

Perhaps because of safety concerns, 67 per cent of those sampled (both men and women) said women should dress modestly.

Of the women polled, 69 per cent were of the opinion that women should dress modestly in public, which is higher than 65 per cent of the men. Interestingly, 73 per cent of the respondents in Nairobi were in favour of modest dressing.

It may, however, surprise Kilimani Mums, who were at the forefront of organising the #MyDressMyChoice street protest, that 57 per cent of the women polled felt that women are baring too much flesh, against only 48 per cent of the men.