How women in military are closely watched to avoid 'sneaking around with men'

Women were first recruited into the Kenya Defence Forces in 1971 when the Women Service Corps (WSC) was created to replace the Women Royal Service Corps (WRAC), a remnant of the colonial government.

The mandate of the WSC was to support fighting units during war through provision of secretarial, clerical, logistics, medication and communication service, besides performing administrative duties during peace time.

WSC was made up of six officers and 150 service women under Major Ineson of the WRAC as their first Commanding Officer, before she was replaced by Phyllis Ikua, a former Prisons officer.

The WSC was headquartered in the then Kenya Air Force Eastleigh base with the service women referred to as ‘Government issues (GIs).’

However, the WSC was a repressive unit that limited women to roles such as nurses, cooks and secretaries.

Service with the Women Corps made it impossible to juggle family life and military career.

Those in the Women Service Corps were not allowed to get married. Those who got pregnant were dismissed on the basis of “services no longer required.”

Through the night, the women were subjected to demeaning bed checks that could at times be conducted as much as three times in one night, to ensure that no service woman spent the night outside the barracks. Severe punishment awaited those who broke this rule and dismissal from the service was not unheard of.

The Women Service Corps was disbanded in 1999, ending a stretch of the most draconian abuse of human rights in a career.

The serving women were moved to various organs in the Kenya Army, Kenya Air Force and Kenya Navy.

The post-WSC came with new regulations that allowed women to marry male officers or servicemen. However, fraternisation across ranks amounts to indiscipline in the military.