We all want the same thing: Winnie Wadera, gender activist accused of victim shaming speaks out

Gender activist Winnie Wadera found herself on the receiving end of angry comments from netizens after she created a post on Facebook calling on women to avoid pursuing material gains in hotel rooms.

She was reacting to discussions around the recent gruesome murder of a 23-year-old woman at a guest house in Nairobi’s Kahawa West area.

Convinced that her remark was being taken out of context, Winnie took to her YouTube channel to explain herself and offer what she called a different perspective to the femicide narrative.

“I condemn rapists and I condemn murderers… However, we will never see the end of it. Murders and defilement cases will still continue until we protect ourselves and avoid finding ourselves in the hands of the murderers and the rapists,” she said in her 42-minute-long video rejoinder.

“Can we start to have a conversation about women who expose themselves to risks of murder or rape in the process of pursuing material stuff?” she posed, adding, “My target was clear and you should not try to twist it to make it about babies and grandmothers to validate your perspective of this conversation. Stick to the course and let’s have a healthy discourse.”

Winnie, who had been invited to take part in an event by the Kisumu Women’s Conference Convening Secretariat, was relieved of her role as the host of the upcoming Youth Pre-conference because of her comment. In a news release, the secretariat termed her remarks as sexist hate speech.

“It is essential that we make clear that her [Winnie’s] comments do not reflect in any way the foundational guiding principles behind the convening organizing. We believe in Supporting Transformative Change to redress historical power imbalances between men and women,” the press release by the secretariat reads in part.

Still not convinced, some users went ahead to beseech her to apologise over her remarks:

“It takes a simple sentence to say sorry. That’s all you need to do. It is [not] right to assume that everyone raped including the lady who was killed are after money. It’s not true or right,” opined one user. Diana Owuor, on the other hand, agreed with Wadera’s sentiments but called on her to be a little sensitive to the victims:

“Right post girl, wrong time [sic]. It’s like telling someone ‘usijali, people lose fathers all the time’ when a father has just died. Very true, wrong time [sic]. It’s called human sensitivity, you wait till the time is right, not when emotions are everywhere,” Diana commented.

In an earlier interview with KTN, Winnie opened up about her sexual brokenness. She revealed that she was defiled at the age of six by an uncle, and when she was in campus, she recalls ending up in a hotel with a public figure who demanded to have sexual relations with her. This scenario, she says, revoked memories of her sexual assault ordeal at the hands of her uncle.