Imagine, for a moment, that the nearest bathroom to your house is half-a-mile away. And that, after dark, making the 20-minute trip would mean you cross paths with men out to rape any women they can find.
Public toilets are a high risk for women’s safety. “Flying toilets” offer a better alternative but then there are sanitation issues to contend with.
When darkness descends in the ubiquitous slums and ‘informal settlements’ surrounding Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, women who visit and use communal toilets unwittingly become sitting ducks.
The dangers are high, for women living in the slums, that they may become targets of youth gangs and individual male rapists.
“I had heard that it was unsafe to visit the (community) toilet alone,” said forty-two year old, Jane njeri, a single mother of three, when she challenged her friend’s ‘I-told-you-so’ warning. Acting against advice, Rebecca suffered irrevocably for throwing caution to the wind.
“I reasoned that since it was only 7:30 p.m., and there were many people walking around, it would be safe to visit the toilet, which was located only about 100 meters away,” explains Njeri”The moment I unlocked the toilet’s wooden door to walk back home I was dragged to an abandoned house where I was abused, in turns, by five men until I blacked out.”
This incident happened in mathare Mabatini – the most populous slum in Kenya – only a twenty minute drive from Nairobi’s Central Business District. Unfortunately the traumatic experience left Jane njeri HIV positive.
“I do not know whether to blame God or myself for the misfortune that befell me,” she exclaims. “It was a Sunday and I had spent, ironically, almost the whole day in Church,” recalls Njeri with tears.
The rape of women living in Nairobi’s mathare informal settlements who are forced to use community toilets, located outside their homes, has now escalated to a clear and identified point of danger.
When darkness descends in the ubiquitous slums and ‘informal settlements’ surrounding Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, women who visit and use communal toilets unwittingly become sitting ducks.
The dangers are high, for women living in the slums, that they may become targets of youth gangs and individual male rapists.
“I had heard that it was unsafe to visit the (community) toilet alone,” said forty-two year old, Jane njeri, a single mother of three, when she challenged her friend’s ‘I-told-you-so’ warning. Acting against advice, Rebecca suffered irrevocably for throwing caution to the wind.
“I reasoned that since it was only 7:30 p.m., and there were many people walking around, it would be safe to visit the toilet, which was located only about 100 meters away,” explains Njeri”The moment I unlocked the toilet’s wooden door to walk back home I was dragged to an abandoned house where I was abused, in turns, by five men until I blacked out.”
This incident happened in mathare Mabatini – the most populous slum in Kenya – only a twenty minute drive from Nairobi’s Central Business District. Unfortunately the traumatic experience left Jane njeri HIV positive.
“I do not know whether to blame God or myself for the misfortune that befell me,” she exclaims. “It was a Sunday and I had spent, ironically, almost the whole day in Church,” recalls Njeri with tears.
The rape of women living in Nairobi’s mathare informal settlements who are forced to use community toilets, located outside their homes, has now escalated to a clear and identified point of danger.
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