Media Should Take A Bold Step To End Domestic Killings
Written by Odhiambo Shem on February 9, 2022
By Simon Onyango:
Of late, domestic killings have skyrocketed in Kenya – it has rose eyebrows of many, parents are killing their young ones before committing suicide, women killing their husbands and vice versa -this might be a normal thing to some – especially, if you’ve not witnessed one or it has not reached you( but I assure you, if things continue this way, then sooner or later, it will dawn on you).
Have you ever asked yourself why all these are happening? What is this that triggers a parent to cut short the lives of innocent souls? What is this that pushes lovers to manslaughter each other? Could it be misunderstanding between the couples? Could it be poverty? Could it be the cost of living? Could it be cultural factors? What about historical factors? Whichever, with no doubt, all these factors are containable – but the problem is one, something is missing in our society.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that almost one third of women experience some form of physical and or sexual violence from an intimate partner in their lifetime. According to the WHO, as many as 38% of all murders of women are committed by intimate partners.
In Kenya, according to the most recent national data about 41% of women reported having experienced physical or sexual violence from their husbands or partners in their lifetime, about two-fifths of those women reported physical injuries from the violence.
The data also shows that, male victims of intimate partner violence have become a serious issue, approximately 3.8 women and 1.3 men per 1000 are victims of intimate partner violence each year – this translates to 1,181 women and 329 men are victims of intimate partner homicide.
Just the other day , a mother killed three of her sons before committing suicide. Do we really sense that something is amiss in our society? Who should be at the forefront to help in containing this mess? My suggestion is Media – the role of Media is to inform, educate and entertain, you’ve informed us much on these killings – entertainment has surpassed everything in Media industry, but when it comes to educating, a little has been done.
Media stand the best chance to end this mess, the society is depressed and stressed up, things are not working out to many and therefore, it would be better for Media to invest much in educating the society – people should know that life is such a precious gift and therefore, should not just be finished due to containable reasons – let Media take a bold step to salvage our society.
