A rights lobby group and a university in Mombasa have raised concerns about the increasing femicide in the country.
Search for Common Ground (SFCG) and the Technical University of Mombasa said on Monday the rate at which women, especially university students, are being killed is alarming and something must be done to stop it.
SFCG is an international nongovernmental organisation that works to end violent conflict and build healthy, safe and just societies.
TUM deputy vice chancellor in charge of academic affairs, research and extension Peter Gichangi said technology is increasingly being used to lure victims to their deaths.
TUM has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Search for Common Ground to ensure gender based violence among communities in Mombasa and the surrounding areas is reduced.
Gichangi said the high rate of femicide is enabled by technology.
“This is a new thing because all of us have smart gadgets and phones. But it is not unusual to find somebody asking to see what messages you have received, who you have been communicating to. That is a matter of violation,” he said.
Gichangi spoke at the university grounds where they signed the MoU.
He said the two entities will tackle three main areas including prevention of technology-enabled GBV, religion and peace-building, and the digital space.
“We know what can happen in the digital environment. Those are areas where we are now having challenges,” the don said.
TUM has an institute of computing and informatics, which would provide the experts and the tools needed to ensure individuals are in a safe digital space.
SFCG country director in charge of the horn of Africa Judy Kimamo said the MoU comes at a time when femicide is on the rise in Kenya, which speaks to the need for quick interventions to arrest the situation.
“First, we need to understand the conflicts that face us every day. These conflicts are complex, difficult and having negative impacts due to their cross-border nature,” she said.
Kimamo said some of the conflicts, like femicide, are driven by technology.
“We know that in the digital era, we have platforms that are generating content and information but we need to understand, for example, how these platforms are designed, how are these platforms using algorithms that send messages that enable people to interact,” Kimamo said.
SFCG country director said technology should be used to solve problems and not create them.
And with access to expertise and resources at TUM, Kimamo said they will reach out to people at the grassroots level to sensitise them in the right use of technology.
Gichangi said with a department and a school of humanities and social sciences where they teach students matters of peace-building, the university is dedicated to ensuring communities live in peace not only in the Coast region but also in the rest of Kenya, East Africa, Africa and the world.
He said they will tackle conflicts influenced by religion.
“Sometimes religion has driven conflicts to situations where lives have been lost. Just look within Kenya and outside Kenya,” Gichangi said.
He said together with SFCG, they will create awareness that religious and non-religious people can co-exist, have dialogue and solve matters that are driven by religion.
Gichangi said SFCG will have full access to experts, like researchers, from the university.
“This is a culmination of a relationship that started about a year ago,” Gichangi said.
Student Derrick Ouko said they will launch a Peace Club at the varsity from where all the sensitisation programmes between TUM and SFCG will be undertaken.
Ouko said the club will help create
just and peaceful societies.