By Magdalene Mukami
NAIROBI, Kenya
In Korogosho, one of Kenya’s largest and most dangerous slums, local elderly women are pushing back against a scourge of sexual violence, literally fighting back with punches and kicks.
These women in Korogosho, home to over 150,000 people, are learning martial arts to fight off attackers in an area plagued by high unemployment and rampant crime. Their attackers are mostly young men inspired by the toxic myth that raping elderly women will “cleanse” them of their misdeeds after involvement in crimes.
These older women, often locally called “grannies,” meet twice a week at a local church with rusted iron sheet metal for walls, sitting in a circle of about 15-20 people, ready for the day’s lesson.
A trainer holds out a punching bag and the women take turns punching it. The punches are not terribly strong, but as the trainer explains, the trick lies in hitting key vulnerable points on the human body.
Joyce Wanja, 65, told Anadolu Agency why she decided to learn karate at a local church. In these slums, lacking running water or a functioning sewage system, Wanja blames the rise in rape cases to the lack of toilets in the Korogosho slums, and the need to go outside.
“I was going to the toilet. It was just after sunset, at around 8 pm, and as I was leaving I met a group of young men who started beating me up and tearing my clothes. I screamed,” Wanja explained.
“Luckily, some other men were near and they started shouting. They came to my aid and the attackers ran away through the narrow streets. I lost a tooth and I was very confused. Before that I had just heard from my friends about rape targeting us, but this time I was almost a victim,” she added.
Fighting off attackers
Wanja also told how one of her friends was raped and killed back in 2014.
“They raped her first, and then they left, a group of about four men,” she recalled.
“The next day she reported to the police that she was able to identify two of the attackers who lived close to her house,” she continued. “The day after that, she was found raped again and murdered.
“It was very painful for us. We used to hear about these cases every day on radio and TV, we had no way to protect ourselves, the police couldn’t help us. But luckily the Korogosho grannies opted to try out karate to protect themselves, and it worked.”
Alice Mwelu,72, says that she was able to fend off a group of attackers late last year thanks to taking karate classes.
“They surrounded me,” she recalled. “I kicked one of them in the groin, and he fell down. Someone grabbed me from the back but I scratched him in the eyes.
“All this time we were taught that the first weapon should always be shouting. I was shouting, telling them to leave me alone. I punched one of the last ones on the nose and he fell down and pleaded with me not to kill him,” Mwelu said.
Margaret Mbatia, who trains the elderly women in martial arts defense skills, says that the lessons have saved many innocent lives, not only of the elderly but also vulnerable children.
“There have been so many cases of our grannies being raped. Recent cases saw one of the women being raped, killed, and the body dumped into the Nairobi River which passes through the slums. Another was found raped and hanged out a windowsill. This is very sad,” Mbatia said.
“The problem is that the young men have been told that raping older women will ‘cleanse’ them. They are also motivated by the fact that the women are weak, easy to prey on, and unlike their peers, they don’t have sexually transmitted diseases. We train them in various martial arts skills at our church to save them from such attacks,” she added.
In a 2016 report, Doctors Without Borders said that the rate of gender-based violence and rape in Kenyan slums, home to more than 2 million people, is quite high.
Alice Mwelu adds that the elderly women of the Korogosho slums, if attacked, will try their level best to avoid conflict by talking their way out of the situation. But if that fails, she says, “then I will let my fists and kicks do the talking”.
