Why Kenyans should Rise above the Creeping Femicide Culture

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Art and music are now being used to propagate the impression that women must be willing to indulge the fantasies of their male counterparts, failure of which they could be killed or maimed. This lunacy exists in the form of danceable tunes our young ones are consuming daily.

The dance of seduction has no certainties. First, because we have different measures for attractiveness and second, because there is no hard and first rule for such persuasion.

If neither the man nor woman is successful in persuading the other, then it is expected that they part ways amicably. Their failure to forge a romantic bond would then be nothing more than a funny story to share with friends and future lover(s) over a cup of tea.

But this way of life is changing. There is a subtle yet very toxic culture that is creeping into our society and changing our parameters of seduction.

For women especially, it is becoming increasingly dangerous to engage in the act as more are being killed by their partners or former partners, with little concern from the general public.

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Art and music are now being used to propagate the impression that women must be willing to indulge the fantasies of their male counterparts, failure of which they could be killed or maimed. This lunacy exists in the form of danceable tunes our young ones are consuming daily.

For example, there is a song titled ‘taka taka’ that recently hit the airwaves. In the song, the artist denigrates a young lady who refuses to be his lover. He makes known his intentions of killing her through witchcraft and affirms that he will thereafter attend her burial to eat and make merry.

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He then goes ahead to call her vulgar names. In between the lyrics, he advises her to be more receptive to men’s advances before she becomes old and unattractive.

It is sad that a few days after the brutal murder of Moi University student Ivy Wangeci, a group of upcoming artistes released a song titled ‘pigwa shoka’.

This was in reference to the axe that Ivy’s assailant used to crack open her skull in broad daylight. In this song, the young men are making it known to the female listeners that the same fate will befall them if they behave in a manner that is unacceptable to their male partners.

The video accompanying the song recreates  Wangeci’s final moments showing a young woman canoodling with a young man. A boy watches from a distance and is later seen fetching an axe and running towards the couple.

 In between this plot, the young girls and boys in the video are seen wriggling as they gyrate to the music. They are visibly oblivious to the rot in their creativity.

The Kenya Film and Classification Board has been vigilant enough to scare the young artistes into publicly explaining the motives behind these songs.

The young men have offered nothing, except their naive yet disturbing quest for fame and popularity. To them, those are just songs, meant to give them a social standing.

To the few discerning ones, however, there is a big problem one that unless addressed today will send more young women to the grave and many more young men to prison. 

In a past report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime showed an alarming increase of femicide cases across the globe.  As damning as those statistics are, what should worry us even more is the ongoing normalization of femicide, especially among younger generations.

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