Photo 1: Hon.Esther Passaris Tabling the Petition for Amending the Penal Code. Source, Euphresia Luseka
This blog is written by Euphresia Luseka, RWSN Leave No One Behind theme co-lead.
The mood in the room was palpable, Furaha’s eyes were welling up with tears, I felt something rising in my throat. “They threw my water jerrycan away, held me tightly and raped me, taking rounds on me, I screamed but no one heard until I passed out, they then left me for dead and disappeared.” She got consciousness at the hospital.
Strongly appealing to the Government of Kenya Public Petitions Committee at Senate house, Hon.Esther Passaris argued, “Daily, women and girls in Kenya are coerced into sex for basic necessities such as water, employment, education or food. We must redefine sextortion in our laws, providing clear penalties, support systems for victims and measures for accountability to eradicate this blight in our society.”
In many countries, such pervasive incidents are hard to prosecute, partly due to the nature of existing legislation. Nevertheless, activists are relentlessly pressuring authorities by raising awareness on legal protection against sextortion.
Passaris, Women Representative, Nairobi City, has been at the forefront in sextortion solutioning with water sector actors. She tabled to Kenya Parliament a petition for debate; urging amendments to Kenya’s Penal Code to specifically include sextortion as a criminal offense. This legal tool lays details to fight against sexual exploitation in response to instances reported in the Water sector backed by research evidence and increasing lobbying championed by Sareen Malik, Executive Secretary African Civil Society Network for Water and Sanitation (ANEW) and Shivaji Malesi, CEO Kenya Water and Sanitation Network (KEWASNET).
Her petition has gained support from fellow legislators recognising need for stronger legal protection for women and girls.
“It’s a missed opportunity that this was not included in the initial Sexual Offences Bill,” further support came from Member of Parliament (MP) Hon.Jayne Wanjiru, criticising slow progress of protecting women’s integrity in corporate realms.
Sextortion in Kenya Water Sector Hits Tipping Point
Sex is a currency for accessing safe water in Kenya.
World Bank and Kenya Demographic and Health Survey Program confirm 60%-93% of slum households are dependent on informal urban water vendors for their water supply where public utilities fail to deliver. They not only charge high prices, sell low-quality water but also perform unfair water transactions to consumers especially women and girls.
Activists say that this leaves consumers vulnerable to harassment, sexual assault, or abuse. Water fetching is costing time and trauma.
“The tariff is unfair. Most water vendors are male. Sometimes they hike prices intentionally for not submitting to their advances. I am forced to pay more money given the limited options of water sources. They gang up with other men to spank and body shame women who deny them and it’s violating. During overcrowding they rub themselves on us,” Rosemary a Katwekera, Kenya dweller narrates painfully.
Indeed the Water Governance Facility report confirms that women may feel pressured to flirt or ‘play along’ with utility workers out of fear of having their connection cut off.
At a crowded water kiosk at Mukuru Kwa Reuben, Melissa affirms the report’s views, “Water is priceless in the ghetto especially during shortages. It is astonishing to see the lengths residents go to fetch leading to STDs, Early marriages and pregnancies. Even boys are affected. Women contract small boys to help them fetch water and sometimes pay them with sex.” Some would say it is the struggle for survival, but it is a normalization of a vice that is eating up our community.”
The price of a basic human right is high. They demand more than just money.
This is rape.
Photo 2: Consumers at Korogocho slum queue for water, Source, Euphresia Luseka
Naming and Shaming Sextortion to End it
Rebecca Root, IBA Southeast Asia Correspondentexplains that various forms of WASH related violence do exist: (a) Sexual violence (rape, assault, molestation, and inappropriate touching); (b) Psychological violence (harassment, sextortion, eve-baiting (public harassment of women by men), bullying or other actions that may cause fear, stressor shame; (c) Physical violence (beating or fighting leading to injury or death); (d) Sociocultural violence (social ostracism, discrimination, political marginalization or social norms that have negative impacts).
One of the most prevalent and silent forms of Water related violence and corruption is sextortion; defined by International Association of Women Judges as abuse of power to obtain a sexual benefit or advantage.
Malesi, informed “The local term for sextortion is ‘water for water’ which means sex for water. The vendors capitalize on socioeconomic vulnerabilities of women and girls to coerce them into sex for water while some women are forced to seduce vendors into sex for water.”
“It’s prevalent in all sectors, all regions, all countries. It affects women from all backgrounds,” details Marie Chêne, head of research and knowledge at Transparency International. She backs this with statistics from a Transparency International Research confirming in Latin America and the Caribbean, one in five people had either experienced sextortion or heard of someone who had. In Zimbabwe, 57% of women admitted being forced into sexual acts for jobs, medical care or schooling. In Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine, almost half of respondents said sextortion occurs occasionally.
Here in Kenya, over 40% of women have experienced sextortion, finds the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS) with Water sector recording an unprecedented number of women reporting being forced to sextortion further affirmed by a KEWASNET study; one out of ten women in Kenya’s informal settlements is a victim of sextortion.
This makes sex the main form of non-monetary bribes in Kenya’s water sector amid a deteriorating economy.
Still there is a Deafening Silence around Sextortion
Research that gathered sextortion voices on water access in Kenya, found out sextortion and sexual harassment was ‘a common phenomenon’ and ‘common knowledge to the residents.’
So why is little or no action taken against it?
Luz Nagle, Scholarship Officer of the IBA Human Rights Law Committee replies, “While many countries have legislation that covers transactional sex or sexual harassment, sextortion is unique in that it’s coercive and involves an abuse of power.” This is why there is still little or no action against it.
Kenya lawyers add the country ranks low on the UN gender inequality index; sextortion is difficult to prosecute as it is undefined in our existing legal framework, women cannot file a complaint and perpetrators cannot be held accountable. Low political will has further frustrated the efforts. Data is scanty with limited research and most victims and survivors do not report cases due to fear of reprisal following disclosure and unawareness on reporting mechanisms.
From personal experience, the fear of reprisal is what stops most people from reporting, there is no incentive for reporting corruption. They taint your image and stigmatise you instead. The justice system is too masculine and very few women leaders support you. Women and the poor suffer most from extortion, they earn the least yet pay the highest percentage of their income in bribes as affirmed by World Bank.
“There’s a lot of shame, social stigma, taboo linked with this kind of offense,” Marie said, adding that in some cases women are forced to marry an abuser or can be fined for adultery.
Measures to bring to light sextortion are desperately important as they are measures to curb the vice. According to Benazir Omotto of Umande Trust and other lobbyists the compounded effects of sex for water need strengthening of the community referral pathways and workplace ethics that links victims and survivors to appropriate support services including legal and financial support. CBOs like Polycom Development Project, Inua dada, Umande Trust have helped in compilation of the women and girls’ narrative as well as providing psycho-social support.
Still, Raising Awareness is not Enough
As Sareen works with water organizations to raise awareness on sextortion, she indicates the lack of belief and resistance to addressing the situation.
“Sextortion is not only happening at the taps but also corporate environments in higher-income contexts. To tackle it, those affected, who are predominantly women, need to be empowered to report incidents, safeguards should be established and perpetrators must be deterred by penalties,” Nagle asserts.
Meaning, dialogue needs to be sustained around this sensitive issue, to find its way into policy, planning and budgeting to ensure that efforts against the vice are sustained.
For this to happen, Countries must treat Sextortion as they would Corruption.
“Corruption takes place because it’s quid pro quo, it’s abuse of power,” Nagle adds, highlighting that the only difference here is that sexual acts are exchanged instead of money.
“Sextortion occurs at the intersection between corruption and sexual exploitation it tends to fall through the cracks and not get addressed by either,” guides Nancy Henry, Senior Advisor, IAWJ.
“When you do not have a name or do not recognize the practice, it is not measured, you do not collect statistics, you do not pass laws or think of strategies to address it including anti-corruption policies so it is invisible,” Marie Chêne, head of research and knowledge, Transparency International.
According to the IBA report ‘Sextortion: A crime of corruption and sexual exploitation’, published in 2020, anti-corruption laws fail to specifically focus on sexual favours and sexual offence laws don’t encompass the corruption component. This means the issue is often dismissed and considered consensual instead.
“Here in Kenya the law does not care because it sees anything other than screaming and fighting as consent,” Millicent a sexual assault survivor told Avaaz.
However, we have progress; the passage of Resolution 10/10 at 10th Conference of States Parties to the UN’s Convention Against Corruption is significant towards recognizing and addressing sexual corruption, including sextortion. It calls on states to raise awareness about the issue and take measures to prevent and prosecute sexual corruption effectively. It is a positive development that can help drive change and accountability in addressing sextortion at a global level. The Water Governance Facility offers a course on water integrity and gender covering sextortion to support authorities including judiciary with knowledge.
Victims petition Kenya legislators to change Law to provide penalties for Sextortion
Photo 3: Malesi making remarks during petitions handover, Source, Euphresia Luseka
Meanwhile, there are ongoing efforts to criminalise sextortion in other ways in Kenya. The Attorney General is under pressure for a bespoke legislation at national level that offers ‘clarity and consistency in defining sextortion and applicable sanctions, according to underlying requirements of the rule of law.
Sustaining the petition, MP Hon.Beatrice Elachi demanded broader implications of the amendment, “Sextortion challenges demand integrating changes across all relevant legislation to end the expectation of sexual favours for professional or personal advancement.”
“Sextortion is a significant infringement of human rights and obstacle to attaining SDG5 on gender equality, and SDG16.6 on accountable governance. By the end of 2024 we aim to have sextortion to be punishable by law in the penal code” Passaris said.
The petition has proposed amendments to the Penal Code, Section 4 and 146, CAP 63, 2024 of the Sexual Offences Act and any other relevant criminal laws.
“Sometimes it is men in positions of power harassing women and sometimes it is women harassing men, all gender need to fight sextortion,” said Hon. Caroli Omondi who took part in drafting the amendments.
This sextortion legal framework will enable adequate prosecution of sextortion cases, raise awareness, strengthen level of women’s participation and involvement in water decision-making structures; providing safe confidential and gender sensitive reporting mechanism that gives victims/survivors access to appropriate support to resources needed as well as empowering women and girls promoting a more just and equitable society for all.
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