NAIROBI // Over a million furious campaigners have signed a petition demanding justice after three men accused of gang raping a Kenyan schoolgirl were ordered to cut grass as punishment.
The attack on the girl and lack of action towards those who carried it out has sparked outrage in the country.
The 16-year-old girl was reportedly attacked, beaten and then raped by six men as she returned from her grandfather’s funeral in western Kenya in June, before the gang dumped her, bleeding and unconscious, in a ditch.
On Monday, the number of those who signed an online petitions started by a Kenyan woman, Nebila Abdulmelik, and publicised by the campaign group Avaaz topped a million, and was continuing to grow.
“Letting rapists walk free after making them cut grass has to be the world’s worst punishment for rape,” Ms Abdulmelik said. “It’s an absolute failure of the entire system and an absolutely shameful response by Kenya’s police.”
The victim knew some of the attackers, and three of them were taken by villagers to the local police station, the girl’s mother earlier told Kenyan media.
“The three ... were only ordered to cut grass around the police camp and set free shortly after,” the girl’s mother told the paper.
She is now in a wheelchair with a broken back, caused either by the beating or by being hurled down into the pit, and also suffered from serious internal injuries.
“My wish is to see justice done,” the girl told The Nation newspaper, which first reported the story, and has led a campaign including raising funds to cover medical costs. “I want my attackers arrested and punished.”
Politicians have condemned the attack and subsequent police failures, ordering action to be taken.
* Agence France-Presse
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Gender equality in the workplace still 200 years away
It will take centuries to achieve gender parity in workplaces around the globe, according to a December report from the World Economic Forum.
The WEF study said there had been some improvements in wage equality in 2018 compared to 2017, when the global gender gap widened for the first time in a decade.
But it warned that these were offset by declining representation of women in politics, coupled with greater inequality in their access to health and education.
At current rates, the global gender gap across a range of areas will not close for another 108 years, while it is expected to take 202 years to close the workplace gap, WEF found.
The Geneva-based organisation's annual report tracked disparities between the sexes in 149 countries across four areas: education, health, economic opportunity and political empowerment.
After years of advances in education, health and political representation, women registered setbacks in all three areas this year, WEF said.
Only in the area of economic opportunity did the gender gap narrow somewhat, although there is not much to celebrate, with the global wage gap narrowing to nearly 51 per cent.
And the number of women in leadership roles has risen to 34 per cent globally, WEF said.
At the same time, the report showed there are now proportionately fewer women than men participating in the workforce, suggesting that automation is having a disproportionate impact on jobs traditionally performed by women.
And women are significantly under-represented in growing areas of employment that require science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills, WEF said.
* Agence France Presse