Rape by Kenyan Police and Security Officials
While most refugee women had various complaints about the Kenya police, they said that the police were generally not responsible for widespread sexual assault.54 Some Kenyan police or soldiers, however, have raped Somali refugee women. Seven of 192 rape cases reported to UNHCR between January and August 1993 involved Kenyan police.
At the time of our investigation in 1993, no police officer implicated in a rape case had been disciplined by police authorities or by the courts. Largely as a result, refugee women who were raped by Kenyan police were extremely reluctant to report the violation to police, and also feared being penalized or repatriated back to Somalia should they decide to do so.
Khadija was a twenty-year-old woman from the Marehan clan. The conflict in Somalia disrupted her university studies, forcing her to flee to Kenya in 1991. She and her family lived first at Liboi camp and then at Ifo. On May 17, 1993, as she was walking back to her hut at dusk, a white police pick-up truck passed her. These cars had been donated by the UNHCR to the Kenyan police to enable them to provide better protection to the refugee camps. As the car passed by, one of the policeman called to her in Kiswahili. Since Khadija did not understand, she ignored them. They stopped the car, and one policeman grabbed Khadija by the wrist trying to force her into the car. She fought back and, after other refugees crowded around shouting "askari, askari" ["guards, guards"], they left and drove back to the police station.
The refugees stood around the area for about fifteen minutes telling Khadija how lucky she was not to have been taken by the police. Then, the car returned. The refugees began to run away, fearing a reprisal as two policemen jumped out of the car and began chasing them. Terrified, Khadija tried to run. She told us:
I was so afraid that I couldn't move. My legs were stuck to the ground. Then I started to run, but he had seen me. I was wearing a white scarf. Two of them got out of the car and then caught me by the arms and legs and dragged me into their car. All the refugees came out and watched, but they were too scared to do anything. I was screaming and crying, and I scratched one man badly. They put me in the car between them and drove to the place where the police sleep. They dragged me into a tent, and three men raped and beat me. After a while I stopped screaming because I was afraid.55
Khadija's ordeal ended when another policeman discovered what his colleagues were doing and stopped them. He picked Khadija up saying, "pole, pole" ["sorry, sorry"]. Then he walked her to the gate of the police compound and told her in English, "Go and don't tell anyone about this." By the time Khadija got to her hut, it was midnight. Her neck was swollen to twice normal size because they had held her in a chokehold in the car, and her head was bruised from being kicked. Khadija's mother wanted to complain to the police station about the behavior of their officers, but the other refugees convinced her this was unwise.
Not knowing what to do, Khadija decided to return to Somalia. However, she did not have enough money, and the bus stop was near the police camp. Finally, she notified the UNHCR that she could not stay at the camp anymore. She was taken to see a doctor by the UNHCR and then transferred to the Dagahaley camp, located nearby. At Dagahaley, Khadijasaw the police who had raped her visit the camp several times. Scared that they were hunting for her, she began sleeping in different places each night.
In July 1993 she was transferred to another camp. Although Khadija has found the new camp much safer than Ifo and Dagahaley camps, she told us that she is still afraid of the Kenyan police after two months in Nairobi. She noted, "They treat refugees how they want and you can't do anything because you are a refugee. Even now I am scared. What if the police that raped me are transferred from Ifo camp?"
While rape of Somali refugee women by Kenyan police and security officials did not appear to be frequent, when it happens, there is no recourse for Somali refugee women. Khadija could easily identify her assailants, but there was nowhere for her to complain without fearing reprisals. Ultimately, a UNHCR protection officer raised the case with the police inspector at Ifo camp, who stated that he had investigated the incident and that the alleged victim had gone into the tent willingly. The police never interviewed Khadija. The case was closed by the police.56
54 There have been numerous complaints, however, by Somali refugees in the capital of Nairobi, of constant harassment for bribes by the Kenyan police. Somali women who are unable to pay the police for their release from a police cell often have to provide sex. Africa Watch interview with a group of Somali women, Nairobi, Kenya, July 24, 1993.
55 Interview at coastal camp, Kenya, July 23, 1993.
56 Interview with UNHCR relief worker, Dagahaley camp, Kenya, July 26, 1993.
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