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The benefits dangled to the women include; enlisting as labourers in the factory farms, free farm inputs including fertilizers and expedited payments for cane supplied/FILE

County News

Canefields of Horror: Vicious sex pests target women in sugarcane farms

The sustained attacks in canefields have left some women with no choice but to abandon sugarcane farming in fear of falling prey to sex predators.

KISUMU, Kenya, Apr 11 — Despite harrowing tales of other women’s experiences in the hands of sex predators lurking in the cane bushes of the Nyando Sugar belt, dozens of women still make calculated risks in the ever-ending struggle to fend for their families.

For Caren, not her real name, her encounter with a unrelenting member of this vicious army of lawless men changed her life, cutting short her quest for education.

“When I tell this story, I see a film playing before my eyes, it is fresh,” Caren says of her ordeal in the hands of a rapist who ambushed her in a sugar planation within Muhoroni.

Caren was raped while fetching firewood inside a sugar plantation in 2022.

“I ran away from our home after the death of my mother when I was 12 years old. I now live with my ageing grandparents in Kasongo village,” she said.

“A man, whom I have never seen in our village, approached me carrying a machete. He threatened me with death if I raised my voice,” she recounted during a recent interview.

Caren, 21, became pregnant and gave birth to a boy now 5-months.

On the fateful evening, she had set out to look for firewood — normally the dried cane that failed to make it to the factory for crushing.

Caren’s case, like many others, went unreported a trend that has emboldened perpetrators who continue to prey on women and young girls.

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In Kisumu West Nancy Aluoch, 22, drugged by an unknown person into a lodging within Kondele in Kisumu.

Aluoch too did not report her defilement for action nor did she seek medical attention. In Nyakach, a 23-year-old epileptic woman was raped twice with both incidents resulting in pregnancies.

Vulnerable victims

Her mother who now takes care of her two grandchildren, born out of rape, says it was a case of incest.

“Those who raped her are her uncles, one of them was sent away by her grandmother fearing an attack,” a grandmother of two narrated.

The sustained attacks in canefields have left some women with no choice but to abandon sugarcane farming in fear of falling prey to sex predators.

Jane *, a framer in Miwani, decided to abandon sugarcane farming in 2018 switching to other food crops after insistent demands for sex from managers at a local cane factory.

“I was asked for sexual favours by the sugar company supervisors to have my cane harvested,” she narrated.

Jane, 57, said her farm was burnt down to force her into giving in to sexual favours to have her cane harvested, but she stood her ground.

“A burnt cane should be harvested within three days, so I declined. I was ready to go at a loss but not to give in,” she said.

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She noted that many women in the sugarcane farming are offered advantages by supervisors in exchange for sex.

The benefits dangled to the women include; enlisting as labourers in the factory farms, free farm inputs including fertilizers and expedited payments for cane supplied.

Unreported cases

Nicholas Mirema, who runs and coordinates Miwani Social Justice Centre, confirmed a number of women face sexual harassment in the farms.

“Just like in the tea sector, here in the plantation, it is worse,” Mirema said.

Mirema, who accompanied a multistakeholder mission for an engagement with victims and survivors, noted that despite there hardly being cases documented, sexual harassment incidents are rampant.

“Thanks these brave women [who are starting to speak out] our voice is getting louder about the injustices they encounter on the farming fields,” he said.

Mirema noted unguarded sugarcane plantations give the preparators a hiding place to commit rapes undetected.

He however decried failure by the victims to report such cases to the authorities for action to be taken.

“They do not even seek quick medical attention. They only go to hospital after feeling the morning sickness, an indication of pregnancy,” said Mirema.

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Preservation of evidence

Sophie Atieno, a counselling psychologist, advices rape and defilement victims to always seek medical services before making a report to the authorities.

“They should go to the nearest healthcare facilities to get treatment, after which they take the report to the police station for filing,” she said.

She added that: “In cases of rape, that cloth worn while undergoing rape or defilement should be collected and kept in a brown envelope and the victim should be discouraged from bathing until visiting the hospital”.

Atieno emphasized on the need to create awareness and avail knowledge on access to safe reporting procedures.

In Nyakach, Jenipher Kosome, an Assistant County Commissioner, noted cases on incest were going unreported due to cultural norms, a trend she noted had led to an increase in similar cases.

High Court Judge Jacque Kamau singled out unreported cases as the single biggest impediment to wagging an effective war against rape and associated crimes.

“We must be able to identify that there was actual penetration, which is one of the ingredient of the issue of defilement and rape,” she said.

Identification of perpetrators, Justice Kamau noted, cannot be determined five to six months after the crime owing to witness and evidence tampering.

“For us in sexual offences, the proof of a perpetrator must be beyond reasonable doubt,” she noted.

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