In Crime-Ridden Nairobi Grandmothers become Karate Kids

In Nairobi's Korogocho slum many women, especially the elderly, fall victim to rape. One single mother decided enough was enough and began to train herself in martial arts. Three years she now teaches elderly women in Korogocho the art of Karate and inspires them to learn how to defend themselves.

These are the voices of grandmothers ranging from their sixties to nineties in the

Korogocho slums of Nairobi.

This is their version of a war cry. As they fight to
defend their human rights and

especially their sexual rights.

I joined this karate training group because of the kind of lives we live here. I wanted to

learn the skills to defend myself against
attackers. Many grannies have lost

their lives and some were even raped and hung dead outside of their windows at night.

Today they are in class to learn how to fight
potential violators.

Sheila Wairimu, was so concerned with the grannies from Korogocho,

that she started karate classes for them.

Way back in the year 2005
when we experienced rape,

especially on grannies who used to be raped and brutally murdered.

I encountered three cases of old women,
who were raped and later brutally

murdered. So along with my friends we
were able to start a self defense team.

The single mother of one spends two days in a week training the elderly women in karate.

Her classes are free. Despite the fact she herself
struggles for money by selling coffee.

On average she makes about two dollars a day. Hardly enough to sustain her family.

I sell black coffee very early in the morning at the
apartment where I live.

Sometimes I go to school and ask for paid classes whose proceeds

we buy flour for the grannies and also
pay for the hall in which we train.

No .. your hand can not protect your face. Always
have it at guard

The self defense training sessions are a home grown response to violent attacks on

grandmothers in slum. Young bandits here often rape elderly women before or after

committing a crime. They believe that this will prevent them from being caught.

Sheila was taught martial arts in 2005
from a volunteer. Now it is Sheila's

we had an 80 year-old woman who had been gang raped
by ten men.

turn to volunteer. In three years she trained
over 60 elderly women in Korogocho.

I joined this self defense training group
because previously, men attacked old women's

homes and did all sorts of things to us.
Many grannies lost their lives.

I needed to learn how to defend
myself instead of always making calls

for help from neighbours every
time my home was attacked.

Statistics from the largest gender based violence
recovery centre in Nairobi indicate

they treated 4,815 people who were raped between 2008 and 2010.

4,093 were women. But this is just a fraction of

the total cases reported nationally
as many cases go unreported.

Since inception in 2001 we treated over 15,300
cases of gender violence survivors.

Which includes both sexual violence
and domestic violence,

with sexual violence being the highest. 90 percent of these cases are of sexual violence.

49 percent are women, 45 percent children
and around 6 percent are men.

We do have cases of elderly women.
Our oldest client was a 105 year old woman.

Just last week we had an 80 year old woman who had been gang raped by ten men.

Fact is women's rights remain a
sensitive subject in Kenya.

Making rape a hard crime to convict.

Sexual violence is one of those private offenses.
Firstly its un-African for people

to discuss sexual or reproductive organs.

There is still a lot to be done.

The kind of questions rape
survivors are asked de-motivates.

Despite this, Sheila continues unrelentingly with
her endeavor to arm this women with

the valuable self defense skills and at least restore their self esteem. But why?

My heart goes out to the grannies because of
what they were going through and seeing that

because of age, they are old and frail, nobody
is able to stand up and fight for them.

Sheila however envisages a future free of
rape cases not only here in Korogocho,

but in other parts of the country where she intends to start similar classes and continue

with her efforts, to empower more elderly women
to defend themselves against violators.