Hanna Wendot Cheptumo, the nominee for the Ministry of Gender, on Monday April 14, made a controversial remark when asked to define femicide, which left some of the legislators with questions.
During the vetting by the National Assembly Committee on Appointments, Cheptumo stated that victims of femicide were mainly uneducated women. She would go on to add that the educated ones are killed or attacked while looking for money.
"Femicide is the intentional killing of women and girls, and it is brought about by dependency. If girls were able to have economic power, they would not depend on either gender," Cheptumo stated.
"If a woman is educated, chances are that she will avoid some of these challenges in society."
According to her, these uneducated people found themselves in such vulnerable positions due to lacking other sources of income.
This did not sit well with some of the panelists, like the committee chair Moses Wetangula, who highlighted that most of the girls killed in Airbnbs were university students who were clearly educated.
To this, Cheptumo did not back down but added that the educated ones were looking for money, stating, "They are educated, but those are looking for money. You know a girl has many needs."
These comments did not sit well with Likoni Member of Parliament Mishi Mboko, who called a point of order even though the CS nominee failed to apologise.
"It is not good to say that those girls are looking for money and that is why they are brutally murdered," MP Mboko stated.
"We have seen so many other women who have been murdered and not in those circumstances, so it is very wrong to say that those women who have been found butchered, their bodies dismembered and put in a sack, were doing that for money."
These comments are, unfortunately, not lone sentiments, as more often than not, cases of femicide end up being blamed on the victims, especially online.
If she is approved, Cheptumo, who is the widow of the late Baringo Senator William Cheptumo, who passed on in February, will fill the gender docket that has been vacant since August 2024.
She is a lawyer by profession and describes herself as a women's rights advocate.
