By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
Shocking! Disgusting! Inhumane! These are just some of the many adjectives that have littered our social media conversations, highlighting a deep-seated frustration over the death of five-year old, Khadija Madinatu Saccoh after allegedly being raped and strangled to death.
This was never supposed to happen, Khadija deserves better. Sadly, what happened to her is not an isolated incident; hundreds of other girls are going through the same situation in Sierra Leone. Like Khadija, some are even dead.
But this death will stick in our collective conscience as a country. It must.
Rainbow Initiative, an organization that works to support victims of sexual and gender based violence announced this week that from January to May this year they have recorded 1,272 cases of rape and other sexual offences against women and girls in the country.
In the wake of the incident a lot of narratives are still unfolding regarding what really happened – how did the five year-old come to this tragic end. Those narratives are underpinned by a deep feud between the mother and father of the victim.
A postmortem on her corpse reveals some signs consistent with rape. She had broken pelvis, bitten tongue, fractured lungs, spinal cord injury, and manual strangulation. Some of the other details are just too distressing to mention in a national newspaper.
Khadija’s killing has once re-ignited outrage; activists have rehashed their campaigns all over again. Sadly, we have been here before; momentary outrage and fire brigade activism and media reportage, we have seen it all. But it’s about time we sustain this anger and inject some consistency in to our fight. We have all been culpable one way or the other; media, activists, police, politicians, the judiciary and parents.
Most media outlets have not followed cases through; we have all jumped in to the storm of these cruel happenings and moved on to the next big story. Maybe it’s the nature of our business, but this nature is one we must change for the good of girls in this country.
Some activists have not been consistent; they have taken little victories in one or two battles as a win, forgetting that the war is still on. Activism against rape has to be consistent, because we are not just fighting a habit; we might well be fighting a growing culture.
Momentary outrage is not enough. As BBC’s Umaru Fofana puts it in his report on the incident, “if outrage was a finite resource, it would have long run out in Sierra Leone in recent years.”
The role of parents and guardians in raising their children has also come under close scrutiny here. On Wednesday, President Julius Maada Bio took time to express his fury while strongly condemning parents for failing their children. “We bring these children to the world and we are not paying much attention to how we can actually nurture them to replace us comfortably,” he said.
Watch this timeline!
In February 2019 President Bio announced a State of Emergency on rape. That announcement triggered a movement by activists to fight and fix the Sexual Offences Act. The review was finally completed in September, 2019. The new law prescribed a 15 year minimum sentence for rapists.
In between Bio’s announcement and the amendment of the Sexual Offences Act, a Paramount Chief in Bonthe District was accused of raping a 17 year old girl. That case was a litmus test for the government to make good on their commitment.
Executive Secretary of Human Rights Defenders Network Sierra Leone, Alphonso Gbanie told Politico on Monday that, “To date the file is in the hands of the Attorney General, nothing has been done. The file has not been processed and brought before a judge.
Gbanie said the victim who is now 18 has since been in exile from her community, hiding in an undisclosed location. “The young girl is still somewhere undisclosed, she is afraid to return because it seems as if the paramount chief has some backing from the government,” Gbanie said.
The Paramount Chief in question has always denied the allegation.
The judiciary has been slow to get justice for victims. Police have also been working under increasingly difficult circumstances, especially with the absence of the relevant technology in a fully equipped forensic laboratory.
Following Khadija’s death, four people have been arrested and Police have promised a swift investigation. But after all this, you will have to wonder if the Police are also committed to getting what they need to deal with Sexual and Gender Based Violence in the country.
In October 2019, the Sierra Leone Police, during their 2020 Budget presentation requested for Le 50.4 billion for rice supply over the next one year and only requested for Le 320 million for the Family Support Unit of the force, which is responsible to investigate cases of rape and sexual assault.
This questions Police’s commitment in all of this.
Monday June 22, 2020, Attorney General, Priscilla Schwartz was on the steps of her office giving her commitment to hundreds of protesters that she will fight for more girls like Khadija against rapists.
“As Attorney General I am also a mother. I will make sure victims of rape get the justice that they deserve,” she said.
The bottomline here is that the system has to work for everyone. As one campaigner, Fatou Wurie wrote on her Facebook wall, “Every time we choose to ask the President and/or the First Lady to get involved in the chosen case we have decided to be the most outraged about, we reinforce that we are a ‘fragile’ state with minimal functioning institutions.”
How do we stand our ground now and move forward?
To honor Khadija and many more women and girls like her, we must not let this burning desire for justice fade out. We must sustain our anger and channel it productively for greater change.
On Monday, ordinary citizens, men, women, boys and girls stood side by side with long time campaigners, calling for justice.
Kadia Seppeh, the mother of a toddler said she was out to protest on behalf of her daughter.
“I am the mum of a toddler and when I saw the news of the five-year old having been raped and killed I felt the need to speak for my daughter and all the children in Sierra Leone. That is why am here,” she said.
There have been other protests like this, could this make any difference? I asked.
Seppeh said,“I think this is one of the biggest protests about rape, other protests have been happening. But if we keep coming out in large crowds we think the authorities will hear us and action will be taken.”
Hawa Kainessie is a University student and was a first time protester. She told Politico that this advocacy should not just be about protest and social media engagements.
“We also should follow the case and if we have to come out for the next one month we should not give up. We should not just express our views on social media, we should follow this through with other actions,” Kainessie said.
Beyond all this, the government should commission a study on rapists. We have to work with Behavioral Analysts, Psychologists and other professionals, to understand the psyche of men and boys who have been convicted for rape. Because most of their actions have defied common sense and perhaps the only thing that is clear is that their action is likely not about pleasure anymore, there is something dark and sinister about their heinous act. We must understand it.
On another level, there is the culture of impunity among men and boys who are sex offenders. This terrible culture among men has also been blended with fear and silence among women and girls. This is a toxic combination of vices that have laid a perfect environment for sexual predators to thrive.
We must disrupt this environment or the current and future generation of girls will grow with deep seated mistrust in boys and men.
Sierra Leone has to be better for everyone. How many more have to die?
Rest in Peace Khadija!
Copyright © Politico Online
