Thousands of women march in Nairobi demanding action on femicide, missing children

[IwantToRetire]

Participants dressed largely in white carried red roses and gathered around symbolic coffins covered in flower petals during an emotional tribute to women and children who have been killed or disappeared.

A large memorial wall listing the names of victims stood at the center of the gathering beneath the message “Stop Femicide in Kenya.”

Organizers said the demonstration was intended to draw attention to what they described as a worsening crisis of violence against women and children and to pressure authorities into treating the issue as a national emergency.

“Many young people are being killed, young girls and women. This needs to stop. That is why we all came out today dressed in these white T-shirts with the message ‘End Femicide’ and ‘End Pedicide.’ Many children are disappearing. You check social media and see families holding posters of missing children,” said Mercy Wanjiku, a 25-year-old student who joined the protest.

https://aa.com.tr/en/africa/thousands-of-women-march-in-nairobi-demanding-action-on-femicide-missing-children/3953230

A large memorial wall listing the names of victims stood at the center of the gathering beneath the message “Stop Femicide in Kenya.”

This is absolutely heartbreaking. I admire them so much and wish them all the strength in the world to make their leaders listen.

I hope the new unit has an effect:
police last month announced the formation of a specialized unit bringing together homicide investigators, forensic experts and criminal intelligence analysts to investigate femicide and other gender-based violence cases.

Thank you for posting.

I know these threads don't get the number of replies the gender identity ones do because really, who the hell is going to have a difference of opinion over whether this protest is justified or whether the violence women and girls face is acceptable, but they are being read.

Heartbreaking. Why are so many men so violent and despicable?

Bad enough that they attack each other for some sort of male competition or pride or whatever.

But how do they justify attacking women and girls?

And sadly happening in countries all over the world.

I can’t bear to think of it, alongside the story of the girl killed in Iraq- Kawthar al-Husajawi.
Why are women so targeted?

Thank you for posting 😢

I will never understand why women and children are so targeted by men. Why oh why do they do this? Every continent, every time in history, why do men behave these ways? And worse still why do some women endlessly stand up for them? It is truly inspiring to see women gather together as one voice against this male behaviour.

Unbelievably heartbreaking.

Over 2000 children unaccounted for. Bloody hell.

Hard to get your head round the numbers.

And in terms of global comparisons these aren't even the worst figures, though I understand from earlier articles there has been an increase in the last couple of years in Kenya.

But as said up thread, inspiring to see women working together and standing up for their rights.

These are some figures from a UN report which for some reason classifies femicide as being murder by a husband or partner.

I dont think this is how most few femicide.

See https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2025-11/femicides-in-2024-global-estimates-of-intimate-partner-family-member-femicides-en.pdf

And there is this one, and am afraid to say I dont understand the map version, but the table of figures below is are terrifying. I also thought South Africa was the country with the highest number of women being murdered.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/femicide-rates-by-country

A lot of 'no data' on that map, so South Africa may still be the highest but just not shown. I assume because many countries don't collect it in a way that allows analysis by that particular definition.

Husband or partner is a very limited definition. Especially when you consider how many of the so called 'honour' murders are by fathers, brothers, and other close male relatives. And there's also quite a high rate of sons murdering their mothers that wouldn't be captured in that definition.

There is a report into femicide from the UN that detailed the methodology of how data were collected, and some of it was whack, to be honest.

Some discounted women over a certain age, for example. There are different methods used from country to country. I made a thread, but it was a while back, I'll try and find it.

Always glad to see women banding together for each other.

I hope they get the results they want and raise the profile of the issue.

I seem to remember the same with at least one of the UN's sexual.violence reports. Only included women between 18 and 45, or similar ridiculously small range.

It may be that that I'm thinking of. I've had a look but MN search is just hopeless.

Of course, the UK is no better. Up until about 2018, women over the age of FIFTY NINE weren't counted in stats on dv. It's absolutely enraging and insane.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4188059-The-hidden-femicide-victims-older-women