PRESS STATEMENT📢
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Denunciation of State repression and call for solidarity with #EndFemicideKE Protests. Nairobi, December 10, 2024. ✊🏿
The Revolutionary Socialist League strongly condemns the violent disruption of the #EndFemicideKE protest, where peaceful demonstrators were met with teargas, brute force, and arrests. This is a blatant violation of democratic principles and an insult to the women of Kenya, who have continuously called for safety, justice, and accountability amid a rising wave of femicides.
On October 30th, the National Police Service revealed that 97 women had been brutally murdered within a span of 90 days. While promising action, the government has done little to match its words with tangible steps. Two weeks ago, President Ruto “directed” the police to stop the killing of women and promised Ksh.100 million to address gender-based violence. Yet, the same police awaited peaceful protestors in plain clothes and armed with teargas, silencing their voices instead of protecting their rights.
This brutal irony of performative gestures — making promises with one hand while silencing dissent with the other — exposes the government’s lack of genuine commitment to addressing femicide. Kenyan women do not need tokenistic funding or symbolic photoshoots; they demand deliberate action to ensure their safety and dignity. Women deserve a government that delivers on its word, not one that weaponizes the very forces tasked with their protection.
Equally complicit are women representatives in the Senate and National Assembly who remain silent as state repression against women escalates. Their refusal to speak out against such injustices demonstrates a troubling alignment with patriarchal systems rather than the interests of the women they claim to represent.
We call on President Ruto and his administration to halt the continued repression of the Kenyan people, uphold democratic principles, and take deliberate, measurable actions to end Femicide in Kenya. Empty promises are no substitute for genuine accountability and structural change.
The Revolutionary Socialist League stands in solidarity with all those demanding justice, safety, and dignity for women in Kenya.
Until Victory! 🚩
End of Statement!