As Kaeni Mdhami followed up on a bizarre case of a Form 3 student who was beaten by her mother and chased out of the house to live in the streets, she found out an all-too-familiar scenario.
“I found out the mother has another man, who is not the father of the girl, and had been influenced by the man to chase her own daughter out of their house,” said Mdhami, a community worker in Mombasa’s Likoni subcounty.
She said some things happen in the villages in Likoni because of poverty, ignorance and inferiority complex, especially among mothers.
Speaking at a women empowerment forum organised by Mama Haki Foundation at Licodep in Likoni on Tuesday, Mdhami said women need to take better care of their communities.
“Your community is not your husband. It is your child,” she said.
She said if women are empowered to invest in their children, the children will not be lured by boda boda operators into sex in exchange for something basic.
“They will not even be lured into bed by their stepfathers. Stepfathers sleep with our daughters,” said Mdhami, who volunteers with Shining Hope for Communities (Shofco).
Shofco is a grassroots movement that catalyses large-scale transformation in urban slums by providing critical services for all, community advocacy platforms, and education and leadership development for women and girls.
Nominated Senator Miraj Abdillahi said women are forced into silence as their daughters and sons are defiled by their husbands and brothers. She said this is because they are not empowered enough to be independent.
“What saddens me most is that we only go to police when the initial agreement between the defiler and the mothers has been breached,” Abdillahi said.
She said women need to start reporting defilement cases involving their children even when their fathers, who are the women’s husbands, are responsible.
“Your duty is to report to the police what your daughter or your son has gone through. But in wanting to protect your marriage or your family, you keep quiet when your husband or brother defiles your child. It is wrong,” the senator said.
This is what has been happening not only in Likoni but also in rural parts of Kilifi and Kwale counties where the wives do not have any income-generating activity and solely depend on their husbands for upkeep.
“We should not let our children be defiled in the name of protecting our marriages,” she said.
To empower the Likoni women, the Mama Haki Foundation has partnered with Diamond Trust Bank and Huawei to help the women with financial literacy.
DTB’s Mercy Douglas said to empower a woman financially is to empower the whole community.
“That is why we have offered to partner with Mama Haki Foundation so we can help Likoni women start income generating ventures, open accounts and train them on how to save and invest money wisely,” she said.
Apart from the financial literacy training the Likoni women underwent, they were also given start-up stock and other items to help them.
Senator Abdillahi said saving and investment is not a common theme among Mijikenda women but she wants to change that.
She said investing not only in the education of children but also in tangible businesses is essential for retirement ages.
