Women still a target as Kenya's social wounds gape

By Lisa Ntungicimpaye

NAIROBI (Reuters) - More than three months have passed since youths stormed Mary's home in Nairobi's Kibera slum, slashing her leg with a machete as she fled.

But the single mother of five still shudders at the thought the men may hunt her down again, rape or kill her because she belongs to a rival ethnic group.

To the outside world, life in Kenya may have returned to normality as a power-sharing accord drew the line under some of the worst tribal clashes since independence from Britain. But for Mary and others like her, the terror goes on.

"We all used to live together. We don't know where this evil comes from," said the 49 year old, nervously fingering the gash in her leg that has yet to heal.

With no sign yet that the rule of law is returning to her neighborhood, the Kikuyu woman fears her Luo neighbors may come after her again. She is too afraid to give her last name.

Besides more than 1,200 people killed, 300,000 were uprooted and hundreds more sexually assaulted in the wave of violence and reprisal attacks triggered by President Mwai Kibaki's disputed re-election in December.

As is often the case, women and children were prime targets: the United Nations said the rate of reported rapes doubled during Kenya's crisis. The youngest victim was 1 year old.

Mary, living in east Africa's biggest slum, lost the little she had -- her iron-roofed, mud house -- and is now forced to sleep in the open air, between two ramshackle shacks soiled by garbage and human waste.

"I can't go back to my house. It was taken over by others."

When the crisis was making world headlines, United Nations officials said the increasing sexual attacks reflected in part a collapse in Kenya's social order as Kibaki's re-election exposed decades-old divisions between ethnic groups over land, wealth and power.

But even if the attacks have subsided and Kenya's stock and currency markets have made gains since the political accord, the social wounds have yet to heal.

"There is a silent war going on the ground, whereby you have a male from one tribe raping a woman from another tribe," said Elisabeth Muthama, a counselor at the Nairobi Women's Hospital.

"These cases are prevalent in Kibera -- a Luo man attacks a Kikuyu woman and then Kikuyu men attack Luo women and so on."

RAPE AND SODOMY

Advocacy group the Coalition on Violence Against Women and rights organization the Federation of Women Lawyers Kenya (FIDA Kenya) plan to petition the newly sworn-in government for compensation for women affected by the post-election unrest, especially those who were sexually assaulted and raped.