By Ken Leshan Sankale
kensankale@gmail.com
It has been a shame of activities in the streets of major towns in Kenya triggered by some dress codes which some would thing its indecent. I however fill sorry to the victims of this and wish this will never happen again in a developed state like Kenya.
Majority of Citizens had the opinion that the Government should take action to haunt all the suspected gangs who are involved in the so called stripping of ladies as we saw in demonstrations in streets of Nairobi.Many however would celebrate the just concluded talks which all institutions proposed action be taken and as the News Kenya paper reported, an action has been approved by activist: "The sixteen days of activism against gender based violence was launched on Wednesday by President Uhuru Kenyatta. This comes at a time when the country is experiencing repeated acts of men stripping women in public. President Uhuru Kenyatta who presided over the event is the second president in Africa to endorse the He for She campaign after Rwanda’s Paul Kagame. The president urged members of public to play their role in protecting women and desist from capturing the humiliation on camera unless to capture the faces of the perpetrators." (News Kenya).
I am also aware that the Law Society of Kenya has proceeded to ask for a special permission from the Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko to prosecute those found culpable of committing the shameful striping acts that were captured on camera two weeks ago in Mombasa and Nairobi as the Kenya Police have also formed an Anti Stripping Squad to deal with the perpetrators of similar shameful acts that might arise in future.
However, I would wish in this case to support and congratulate the many ideas that formulated these strategies of dealing with the perpetrators of such shameful acts.
I would want to express my opinion by introducing the international human rights law which talks about freedom of dressing stating that ''Under international human rights law everyone has the rights to freedom of expression and freedom to manifest their religion or beliefs. The way people dress can be an important expression of their religious, cultural or personal identity or beliefs. As a general rule, the rights to freedom of religion or belief and freedom of expression entail that all people should be free to choose what - and what not – to wear.''
No one has a right to stripping women and if an action would not be propelled over the culprits then it means that this violence will continue until Jesus lands back to the earth from heaven.
Being a supporter of the ongoing twitter campaign "MydressMyChoice", I however need to add that everyone regardless of their gender, age and orientation have a personal responsibility without being commanded to dress decently.
Men have this in mind: "It is not your responsibility to strip ladies, but indeed your responsibility to protect them." and I wish someone can listen and watch "strength of a woman" by Shaggy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mILsx_c-vXw
Sankale Kennedy
