NAIROBI—Last September, Ugandan Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei lost her life in Kenya at the hands of an intimate partner.
Cheptegei’s partner, Dickson Ndiema, poured petrol on her and set her on fire during a disagreement at their home. Her mother, Agnes, had dreaded this moment for years.
“This wasn’t the first time our daughter suffered at his hands,” Agnes Cheptegei said, her voice trembling.
Cheptegei’s tragic death took place barely seven months after more than 10,000 women took to the streets of Nairobi to protest femicide, the killing of women. The January 2024 protests, which spread throughout the country, led to a flurry of commitments from Kenyan President William Ruto’s government, such as establishing a dedicated police unit for femicide cases, fast-tracking judicial proceedings, and supporting shelters for survivors of gender-based violence. Femicide cases in Kenya have risen in the last year, however, making 2024 one of the deadliest years on record for Kenyan women.
Activists claim the government said the right things at the time, but it has failed to back up its words with action.
“It has been a year of empty promises,” said Njeri Migwi, co-founder of Usikimye, a Nairobi-based organization dedicated to supporting survivors of sexual and gender-based violence.
The crisis in Kenya mirrors a grim global reality. Despite decades of activism against gender-based violence, femicide is a problem that refuses to go away. A United Nations report released last year shows that 85,000 women and girls around the world were killed in 2023. Of that, 51,100 were murdered by an intimate partner or family member, amounting to 140 deaths daily. Africa recorded the highest rates of intimate partner and family-related femicide, followed by the Americas and Oceania.
This has led to a global push by activists to formally recognize femicide as a standalone crime, emphasizing the urgent need for justice and accountability. In 2007, Costa Rica became the first country to legally define femicide as a distinct crime. Since then, countries like Croatia and Cyprus have followed suit, integrating femicide into their criminal codes. The Federation of Women Lawyers-Kenya (FIDA-Kenya) and Amnesty International are calling for Kenya’s government to do the same.
Ruto’s administration looks to be following South Africa’s lead instead, setting up a task force to come up with legislative and policy responses to gender-based violence, including femicide. But frustrated activists are pushing for the government to take more concrete steps.
“In the last year, femicide cases surged, while the government’s response was reactionary at best. As women, it felt like we were left to fend for ourselves,” Migwi said.
Families who have lost loved ones to femicide have seen their grief compounded by a sluggish justice system that offers neither solace nor answers.
Lucy Njeri, a member of parliament from Kirinyaga County, is consumed by bitterness over the fruitlessness of her fight for justice for her slain 23-year-old daughter, Seth Nyakio. Njeri said Nyakio was strangled by her ex-boyfriend in October 2024, yet he has not been arrested.
“Even after identifying myself as Nyakio’s mother, so much was hidden from me,” Njeri said, her voice heavy with emotion. “I have never been given the full details for her murder case, despite asking for it repeatedly. The initial investigations were riddled with gaps and cover-ups. I am bitter. How can I mourn my daughter while her murderer is out here free? Is that fair?”
The first time Cheptegei was abused by her partner, she went to the police. According to her mother, Cheptegei was so disheartened by their inaction that she refused to report any future attacks.
Data on femicide is often incomplete due to underreporting, but there is a clear trend showing that Kenyan women are increasingly being killed by intimate partners, family members, or strangers. Recent police data, which showed that almost 100 women were killed in just the three months between last August and October, suggests that 2024 could have been the worst year on record for femicides in Kenya.
“Enough is enough,” said Christine Kung’u, the chairperson of FIDA-Kenya. “The state’s unresponsiveness over the rise in femicide cases is unacceptable.”
Some families have been seeking justice for years. For Rose Nduta, her grief today remains as raw as the day her daughter Purity Wangeci was taken from her in 2022. Wangeci, a vibrant young woman who dreamed of becoming a journalist, was brutally murdered by her boyfriend just eight months after starting college.
“Life without her feels empty and meaningless,” Nduta said from her Nairobi home. “We were so close. We loved each other so much. Nightmares of her haunt me even now. The image of her lifeless body lying in a thicket is etched in my mind—it never leaves me.”
Nduta said she has endured an agonizingly slow legal process. While the suspects were arrested and arraigned, progress has still been painfully lethargic.
“Since the case started, only two hearings have taken place,” she explained. “The next hearing is scheduled for this coming June. It feels like an eternity.”
Kenya seems to be using South Africa as a model for tackling the femicide crisis.
In 2018, South African women rallied under the #TheTotalShutdown movement amid a surge in femicide cases. They pressured President Cyril Ramaphosa into convening the country’s first presidential summit on ending gender-based violence and femicide. This momentum culminated in legislative reforms, such as the establishment of the Ministry for Women, Youth, and Persons with Disabilities, and the creation of a national strategic plan on gender-based violence and femicide—a crisis that Ramaphosa called a “second pandemic.”
The results in South Africa have been a mixed bag. Last May, Ramaphosa signed a bill to establish the National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide, tasked with implementing the strategic plan and allocating resources to policies and programs aimed at ending femicide and gender-based violence.
But last November, the South African Medical Research Council’s Gender and Health Research Unit revealed a troubling trend: The number of murders of women reported to police has been on the rise since 2020/21, with intimate-partner femicide as the primary driver of the increase. It is unclear whether it is at least partly due to a rise in reporting of these crimes due to increased awareness.
With Kenya now taking its cues from South Africa on addressing gender-based violence, activists are calling on Ruto’s government to move boldly. Ruto’s task force is expected to present actionable recommendations by April 10, and feminists want to make sure the group is given the time and resources to do its job right.
“The 90-day period set for the working group is simply not enough to effectively address the complex mandate they’ve been given,” said Evelyne Opondo, Africa director at the International Center for Research on Women. Despite the tight timeline, Opondo acknowledged that the formation of the task force is a significant step forward.
Women activists are also urging the task force to adopt a more intersectional approach that develops targeted interventions for marginalized groups, including refugees, people with disabilities, and those living in conflict-affected areas.
More ambitiously, FIDA-Kenya and other activists are calling for Ruto to declare femicide as its own distinct crime, an action which they say would help address the patriarchal dynamics that lead to femicide and an unresponsive justice system.
“We need femicide to be recognized as a standalone crime, separate from murder,” said Martha Odero, a Nairobi-based activist. “The government’s policies and existing laws are barely effective or deterrent enough.”
Nduta said her fight for justice for her daughter is not just personal but also a reminder of the human cost of a system that repeatedly fails survivors and their families.
“I don’t want another mother to experience what I’m going through,” she said. “Wangeci had so much life ahead of her. She didn’t deserve this. No woman does.”
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