Rights defenders flag rising trend in femicide cases

Human rights activists march to protest against rising femicide cases in the country. [File, Standard]

Human rights actors have raised concerns over the surge in femicide cases across the country, warning that the killing of women has reached a troubling tipping point.

The human rights players further said rights defenders are increasingly being targeted through State harassment, arbitrary arrests, physical attacks and extrajudicial killings.

Speaking during the launch of the Strategic Plan for the National Coalition of Human Rights Defenders, stakeholders added that violence against women has been normalised as a response to conflict.

“Our society is sliding back to when women were targets for oppression and targets for violence. And now increasingly we are noticing even an increase in femicide, which is the killing of women, just because they are women,” said Kamau Ngugi, the executive director of Defenders Coalition.

Ngugi added that there has also been a surge in Gender-Based Violence, particularly technology-facilitated gender-based violence, where women human rights defenders are exposed to online attacks and harassment.

Amnesty International Executive Director Houghton Irungu said the delayed action by the State to curb the trend is only emboldening perpetrators and leaving women under constant threat.

“As Amnesty International, we are very concerned about femicide. We are seeing another tipping point where the GBV task force came with their report and we thought that it would be received promptly, its recommendations acted on immediately,” said Irungu.

“We have lost a year now and as a result, we have started to see the numbers go up again. We have started to see heinous attacks on children and these are not party political issues. These have to be national concerns,” he added.

The Kenya National Commission of Human Rights (KNCHR) chairperson Claris Ogangah, emphasised that the rise in femicide is not only a law enforcement issue but a broader societal breakdown, where violence is increasingly being normalised as a response to conflict.

“It’s very unfortunate that some of us feel that the only way to resolve issues is through harming other people or killing other people. It’s a societal issue that we must find societal resolutions to it,” said Ogangah

She KNCHR chairperson further noted that as the country heads towards general elections, cases of violations against human rights defenders are expected to go up, hence the need to put in place measures to protect them.

 “As we head towards elections there are many things that happen. We have demonstrations, we have protests, we have people campaigning, and sometimes some of these events end up being violent,” said Ogangah.

“A lot of the time you’ll find that it is the defenders who document some of these violations and they push for accountability. As a commission we are happy that the Defenders Coalition is taking up that role of not just supporting the work that they do,” she added.

 At the launch of a new strategic plan by the Defenders Coalition, Ngugi said the environment for activism has become increasingly hostile.

“It is a time when human rights defenders are experiencing a lot of reprisals. Increasingly we notice that the movement towards consolidation of repression within the East African region is implicit and the attacks are directed at people who are fighting to have strong democratic institutions.”

Ngugi cited cases where defenders have paid the ultimate price for their work, including Elizabeth Ekaru, a woman who was killed in Isiolo while advocating for land and inheritance rights.

“She was stabbed so many times and killed. It is very sad that we can lose a human rights defender just because they are defending the rights for the poor and the dispossessed in society,” Ngugi added.

Beyond physical violence, defenders are also battling legal intimidation with the actors accusing law enforcement agencies of weaponising the justice system to silence dissent.

“The courts are being abused, particularly by the police who are putting trumped-up charges against human rights defenders. Instead of focusing on access to justice, they are using the justice system to intimidate human rights defenders,” Ngugi added.       

As part of the five –year strategic plan running from 2026-2030, Ngugi stated the coalition will deliberately invest resources to safeguard the rights of wo men human rights.

“We have put a lot of emphasis on training women human rights defenders on how to operate safely so that you safeguard them from violence online,” he added.

At a regional level, the human rights organisations regretted the growing transnational repression, where activists face threats that extend beyond national borders.

Human rights defenders operating within East Africa have reported cases of cross-border abductions, torture, and coordinated intimidation.

“It is very sad that some of our human rights defenders have been kidnapped, others have been tortured,” Ngugi said, pointing to an emerging pattern in the region where defenders are being charged in courts on trumped-up charges.

He warned that instead of safeguarding freedoms, some governments in the region appear to be tightening control over civic space, making it increasingly dangerous for activists, journalists, and opposition figures to operate.