Amnesty Kenya has slammed the Gender Cabinet Secretary nominee Hanna Wendot Cheptumo over remarks she made on femicide during her vetting on Monday, April 14.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the human rights advocacy group termed Cheptumo's remarks—which blamed the victims of femicide— as not only insensitive but also outright wrong.
Amnesty noted that femicide is a crime, not a consequence of unfortunate circumstances, and that focus should be directed to eradicating it.
"Suggesting that girls need economic power to avoid femicide shifts the blame from perpetrators to the victims. Femicide is a crime and should be treated as such," Amnesty stated in a video dubbed How Not to Govern 101.
"Article 26 of Kenya's Constitution guarantees the right to life for every Kenyan. Article 27 emphasises that no one should be discriminated against. Blaming victims for violence disregards these rights."
During her vetting on Monday, the CS nominee claimed that the lack of economic empowerment for women was a leading cause for uneducated women who lacked other sources of income.
"If girls were able to have economic power, they would not depend on either gender. If a woman is educated, chances are that she will avoid some of these challenges in society," Cheptumo stated.
Moses Wetangula, who chairs the National Assembly Committee on Appointments, highlighted that most women killed in Airbnbs were university students who were educated, at which point Cheptumo doubled down on her stance, stating that those women were in search of money.
"They are educated, but those are looking for money. You know a girl has many needs," the statement read.
Immediately, Likoni Member of Parliament (MP) Mishi Mboko took issue with the comments, calling a point of order and pointing out that they alluded to victim-blaming.
"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."
Cheptumo was nominated for the gender docket on March 26 and is the widow of the late Baringo Senator William Cheptumo, who passed on in February.
