Saturday, July 12, 2008

Serial Rapists In Uniform

Kumekucha Weekend Special: Focus on the Kenya Police

There is this police station in Nairobi that used to have a police officer who was a well known serial rapist. The man was married with children and it is not clear where and when he picked up this sick mentality.

It has been suggested by some that he could not help himself because many women suspects offer themselves in return for various favors. This is of course a theory that is even crazier than this officer who is said to have been rather tall in stature.

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Previous stories in this Weekend Special edition;

How Kumekucha was asked to strip naked by the Kenya Police

Unusual and bizarre methods of solving crime in Kenya

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But there is more. Please brace yourselves folks.

Most reports of rape at this police station used to be referred to the said officer. Yes, the serial rapist himself. It is said that he would then take great pleasure in getting the “exact gory details” of what had happened to the victim reporting the rape. This included the actual penetration and all kinds of details related to it. It is not clear what the exact objectives of his actions were but I can assure you the information was never used for official purposes or to press charges.

Now if you are a man and reading this, you may be unable to understand a few things. Rape is NOT a joke. Indeed there is no crime as horrifying as rape. Most women would actually prefer to be murdered than to be raped. So you can begin to imagine the kind of traumatized state that a victim of rape is in as they arrive at a cop shop to report the heinous crime only to be confronted by a sexual predator of a police officer keen on getting some excitement out of their trauma.

Mercifully a lot has changed since this sick officer reigned a few years back, but sadly not nearly enough. The sexual offences bill was passed by the 9th parliament but is yet to be fully implemented.

I once personally witnessed a woman reporting rape to a police station in a well known Nairobi estate. There was visible evidence that the woman had been through a traumatizing experience similar to what she was reporting. To make matters worse she was carrying a child on her back. Right there in the crowded police station police officers loudly questioned her. She was clearly a very brave woman and somehow did not break down, because I am a man but I would have surely broken down in such a situation. The officers wanted to know if the rape happened when the child was still on her back. They obviously took great joy in questioning her. And nobody was even writing anything down. It was clear that the whole thing was just pure entertainment for the said officers.

As I left that police station one question disturbed me greatly. Did these police officers not have sisters, mothers, daughters and even wives who could be possible victims of rape one day?

7 comments:

  1. Is this the book you had announced to publish before leaving Kenya? At least be authentic. You once mentioned when defending your article about Jeff Koinange and calling him the Kenyan Date Rape Journalist (actually it was this article which had led to Kumekucha's 1 Million hits around the world) that you are so angry about men doing this to a woman because your own wife suffered such an ordeal by somebody before you married her. She still now has sometimes nightmares because of this. So if you want to be serious, talk about your own personal experiences and some made-up phantasy stories. The world is full of real-life drama. If you feel some compassion, write about this. Go and talk to people. Let them tell you their stories. Then you are a true journalist, somebody we would like to listen to. Stop being this artificial Chris who slowly starts loosing his former credibility. Not such a long time ago, we all admired you for having the courage to tackle real and serious issues. Where and why did you loose the grip? And something more: Don't hide behind this ghost-writer called Oscar (or whatever his real name is).

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  2. Does it mean that Chris and Marianne were or are lovers? Someone elaborate. Tafadhali

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  3. Marianne if you are reading this - time has come to defend yourself. Is it true that all this men had you?

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  4. Chris, This weekend the comments have reached all time low. Can you explain why?
    This business with Marriane Brinner, could it be the one that's driving bloggers away.

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  5. Kenyan men, and indeed African, except for chaps like kumekucha who are of slightly superior in mind than others, are nothing but beasts who should not be with any woman on the planet. The mp's even laughed at the sexual offences bill before passing it under pressure. One time a woman was raped was reporting it at a crowded police station -just as reported here- and the police were telling her that she counts herself lucky that they did not use polythene bags to act as condoms as "they do elsewhere"( to which all men in the room laughed, police and the arrested alike). Kenyan men are beasts- at least in other parts of the world there are more men who are NOT beasts than are, who recognize, as the writer puts it, that they have female relatives and have created tough laws against rapists which are followed.Majority Kenyan men are still v. backward and beastly in nature,even compared to their Tanzanian or Ugandan counterparts, and almost as bad as indian men. No wonder mzungus learn from you when they come and rape your children as they learn from your low regard of your own women. Beasts. I cheer that majority kenyan women realise that and opt fo foreigners.

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  6. Comments are low cos they don't know what to say about women being raped. Or about Chris' experiences. Yet. Simple.
    Chris, keep writing. I think this is a good idea for weekends since politics seems to have a five-day week in all our lives.
    Endelea Chris, I am a good reader.

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  7. What a great resource!

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