NAIROBI, KENYA – Shanty houses made from rusted corrugated iron sheets line a lone tarmac road in Korogocho, a slum in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital. Garbage is strewn along the dusty sidewalks, and a herd of goats trots by, oblivious to their surroundings. Amidst the shanty houses stands a robust church made of blue corrugated iron sheets with its name painted in white: the Church of the Lord and Faith Healing Ministry.
Outside the church, it sounds like a kung fu movie. Yelling and pummeling pierce the air.
"We teach them to yell, not scream."
“No! No! No! No! No!” the voices inside shout repeatedly.
The church door flings open, revealing a room of nearly 30 elderly women in their 60s and 70s who take turns chopping, hacking and pummeling a punching bag. Some even use their walking canes to pulverize the imaginary assailant.
This is a self-defense class for elderly women in the heart of Korogocho, one of Nairobi’s largest slums, with an estimated 200,000 residents. The class is run by No Means No, a local organization that offers various programs to protect Kenyan women.
Sheila Wanjiku of No Means No says she was part of a larger team that brought the elderly women of the Korogocho slum together in 2007. The team taught them a variety of martial arts techniques to defend themselves against rapists. Now the elderly women train diligently every Thursday and Saturday to protect themselves from attacks in the slum, an area rampant with crime.
Wanjiku, who was born and bred in Korogocho, says she witnessed many crimes around her growing up. She says she saw young men rape innocent elderly women, even killing some and leaving them in sewage trenches or garbage dumps.
Wanjiku says there are many theories on why this happens, including a belief by some men that raping elderly women cleanses them of other crimes.
“Some young guys say that when they steal or commit other crimes and rape a grandmother, they would not be caught,” she says. “It’s like a form of cleansing ritual.”
Wanjiku says that most young men also believe that every young woman in Korogocho is HIV-positive, so they prefer to rape grandmothers. She says the young men approach the elderly women and request to visit them and buy them groceries as an act of kindness. But once inside the home, the men rape the elderly women and leave some for dead.
Authorities and residents in Kenya’s slums pass the blame when it comes to addressing rape incidences, which leave elderly women particularly vulnerable here. Nongovernmental organizations, NGOs, strive to reduce cases and provide legal services. Meanwhile, a group of grannies is taking matters into its own hands by gathering biweekly for self-defense trainings.
Scattered statistics of rape and defilement cases across the country make it difficult to determine whether there has been an increase or decrease in rape cases in recent years. Nairobi Women’s Hospital attended to approximately 2,500 cases of sexual and gender-based violence cases – with rape cases accounting for 21 percent – during post-election violence in the first three months of 2008, according to a 2010 report by the Agency for Cooperation and Research in Development, an international NGO. Meanwhile, the 2010 annual report from the Nairobi Gender Violence Recovery Center of the Nairobi Women’s Hospital listed 2,487 survivors of gender-based violence, with rape or defilement accounting for 85 percent.
