Our Urgent Need for a Progressive Sexual Harassment Policy

During this semester (January 2020) a number of heart-rending reports of sexual assault against female students have been made in Daystar University. The accused parties so far comprise male staff and one male student. The allegations range from sexual harassment and humiliation during enforcement of the retrogressive dress code all the way to rape. Sadly, these accusations have been supported by other victims and by many students with a friend or classmate who was also victimized.

The fact that the sickening reports of sexual harassment are being made anonymously shows a failure to create a safe space for the voices of victims to be heard. Some victims could only gather the courage to speak out long after graduating, and even so anonymously. It is a terrible injustice for our young ladies seeking an education to go through the trauma of sexual assault and to suffer in silence.

The Magnitude of Sexual Harassment in Universities

• Nairobi data indicate that 49% of women had experienced sexual harassment from a staff member.
• 66% of these student victims were sexually harassed by a professor/lecturer.
• Most student victims reach out to their friends, however it’s common to keep silent.
• 38% of female students and 33% of male students think it would be very unlikely or unlikely that the university would take a report of sexual harassment seriously, protect the victim of sexual harassment or act against a staff member who sexually harassed a student.

Our University is not immune from the evils of sexual harassment and rape.

We must stop burying our heads in the sand when it comes to sexual assault.

We must start to appreciate the urgent need for a progressive sexual harassment policy. 

We must now guarantee comprehensive recourse to justice both for our victims and for the protection of our community from abusers.

Make no mistake, the abusers will win if we choose not to confront uncomfortable truths in our community. Nothing should come before the immediate security of our young ladies in Daystar University.

Our Position Against Sexual Harassment

These 5 reasonable and practical demands have been developed by student leaders from higher learning institutions across Nairobi. They seek to fill the gaps in how higher learning institutions address issues related to sexual harassment on campuses. Many institutions have policies in place but fail to effectively enforce the rules and procedures aimed at preventing sexual harassment from staff towards students. It’s time to hold our government and higher learning institutions accountable and make our campuses a safe and fair place to learn!

1. Facilitate all students to watch an educational resource on sexual harassment, and make sexual harassment a topic in every induction for newly enrolled students

2. Conduct a yearly training for all staff on sexual harassment. At the end of the training, all staff must sign a standardized code of conduct and ethics.

3. Appoint a Gender Officer with the obligation to: facilitate training and outreach on sexual harassment; provide resources and support to victims of sexual harassment; and develop, disseminate, implement and review relevant policies on sexual harassment.

4. Establish an investigative committee that students can approach when subjected to sexual harassment from lectures, staff and fellow students.

5. Incorporate Demands 1 – 4 into its sexual harassment policy, publish an annual report detailing the progress on achieving the objectives, and implement a sexual harassment assessment survey every two years to monitor the issue.

Join us, fellow comrades, in our #CampusMeToo campaign as we change the norms to stop sexual assault before it starts and to ensure victims get all the support they need. We need 1,000 signatures to present this petition to the Administration.

What You Can Do To Help:

1. Sign this petition
2. Share this petition widely with comrades

 

May we all unite and commit to never again empower sexual predators with our silence and inaction.