WUNRN
Women News Network - WNN
December
27, 2010
Website
Link Includes Video.
KENYA - PUBLIC TOILETS HIGH RISK FOR
WOMEN'S SAFETY
"FLYING TOILETS"
ALTERNATIVE BUT SANITATION ISSUES
Nairobi, Kenya – 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, Rebecca Nduku, 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,” explained Nduku.
“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 Kibera – the most
populous slum in
“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 Rebecca with
tears.
The rape of women living in Nairobi’s
informal settlements who are forced to use community toilets, located outside
their homes, has now escalated to a clear and identified point of danger.
The July 2010 report, “Risking Rape to
Reach a Toilet – Women’s Experiences in the Slums of Nairobi, Kenya,” by human
rights organization, Amnesty International UK, offers a searing and detailed
account on the lives of 130
In failing to include informal settlements
and slums within mainstream urban planning, the City of
“The continued exclusion of slums and
informal settlements from the city’s planning processes, in particular the
non-enforcement of existing sanitation standards, results in stark disparities
in access to sanitation facilities between slums and informal settlement areas
and other residential areas,” said Amnesty International after assessments were
made on the continuing challenges and problems with sanitation and safety for
women.
“Many women have suffered rape and other
forms of violence as a result of attempting to walk to a toilet or latrine some
distance from their home,” outlines the Amnesty report. “To avoid these
dangers, women sometimes wash or use latrines in groups or ask male family
members to accompany them at night. However, this does not alter the fact that
facilities are inadequate and inaccessible.”
Women living within the settlements have
been reduced to “prisoners within their own homes,” said Dr. Godfrey Odongo, a
research associate for Amnesty International.
“Traditionally women require utmost privacy
compared to their male counterparts when bathing or using the toilet; but
because these facilities are inaccessible, or situated long distances from
their homes, women are vulnerable particularly to rape,” explains Dr. Odongo.
United Nations statistics show that 16
million Kenyans – 40% of the country’s population – currently live in slums.
This number has been swiftly growing. From 1990 to 2010, UN Habitat estimates
that the number of inhabitants has increased to 50%, or 20 million Kenyans
presently living in slum conditions. In the next 30 years, the number of
persons living in slum communities in
With widening conditions of urban poverty
come increasing inadequate protections for women. Police protection is often
negligible inside the boundaries of the slums and informal settlements
surrounding
“I always underestimated the threat of
violence,” says 19 year old Amina. “…I would go to the latrine any time, so
long as it was not late at night, until about two months ago when I almost
became a victim.”
Amina was rescued just in time when 4 men
accosted her in Mathare, a notorious slum located 20 minutes from
“The lack of policing in slums increases
the ever-present threat of rape and other violence faced by women. There is
little police presence and no permanent police station or post in Kibera –
The thirst for urban settlement has
“increased tremendously here in the past 5 years,” says World Health
Organization (WHO) country representative, Dr. David Okello, who describes the
phenomenon as “a crisis” if solutions are not found “fast.”
Tirop Kosgey, Permanent Secretary in
“Instead of the targeted annual 150,000
(housing) units, the government is only realizing 30,000-40,000 units within
the same period,” outlines Kosgey. The high cost of mortgages and building
materials means that only 16% of Kenyans now own their home.
“A basic human right,” described the
National Environmental Sanitation and Hygiene Policy (NESHP) in 2007, along
with
In facing ongoing problems of violence
against women, many women in the informal settlements and slums have improvised
their own solutions toward safety. It involves avoiding community toilets
completely.
The theory is simple. “Flying toilets,”
bags that are used instead of bathroom facilities, are part of the answer to
violence. But the often thin plastic bags come with many complications. They
are extremely unsanitary. Once the bags are loaded with excrement, they are
flung through windows eventually breaking open as they expose surrounding areas
to numerous pathogens.
Needs for sanitation has caused a new
invention to surface. It is more sanitary than standard flying toilets. Called
the PeePoo bag, it was invented by Swedish architecture professor, Anders
Wilhelmson, in 2005. Still in its testing phase, the PeePoo bag is designed to
turn human faeces into compost fertilizer in only a few days through a natural
chemical process inside the bag. The hope is that these new bags can help break
the cycle of contamination and disease in the slums of
Until a lasting solution with urban housing
and proper government sanitation management is found, along with greater
safeguards for urban women,
Amina did not make a formal complaint to
police authorities, when she was attacked in her community toilet, for fear of
reprisal from her assailants. Neither did Rebecca Nduku. Both privately think
they are still being watched by their predators. This is a sure sign that fear
may forever define their lives as long as these women remain part of
“Ask anyone what it will take to make
women’s equality a reality and ‘toilets’ will probably not be the response. Yet
it is difficult to exaggerate the impact that access to private, safe and
sanitary toilets would have on the daily lives and long-term prospects of the
1.3 billion women and girls that are currently doing without,” said (WHO) the
World Health Organization in 2004.
Because of conditions of ongoing violence,
women living in the informal settlements and slums of
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http://womennewsnetwork.net/2010/12/27/kenya-flying-toilets-women/
Website Link Includes Video.
Women and girls living in slums are
suffering under the threat of sexual violence and other crimes just because
they lack proper sanitation facilities. Proper government enforcement of the
Public Health Act of
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