Sauti Sessions’ Second Edition Shines A Spotlight on Kenya’s Burgeoning Femicide Crisis

The second edition of Sauti Sessions held at the Baraza Media Lab on the 3rd of September, 2025, sought to shine a spotlight on the burgeoning femicide crisis in Kenya. Gracing the sombre episode as the main guest was the founder and CEO of Usikimye, Njeri wa Migwi, a well-known figure in the anti-GBV and anti-femicide movement, who has dedicated her life to the cause of turning the tide against the wanton violence meted out to and killing of women. Behind the interviewer’s desk to guide the conversation on this important subject with all its sensitivities and complexities was Ian Wafula, the founder and lead curator of Sauti Sessions.

But before members of the audience settled into the auditorium ahead of the discussion with Njeri wa Migwi, they got an opportunity to see the Maskan Exhibition curated by artist Thayu Kilili, the managing director of Creatives Garage, in conjunction with Usikimye to highlight the femicide crisis in Kenya. “Also when I was curating this thing, it was about bringing people to this space and removing the numbness that we have, the desensitisation that we have, ” Thayu said of the intention behind the exhibition in a screened interview with Sauti Sessions. The exhibition seeks to lift the lid on the killing of Kenyan women by their intimate partners or family members behind closed doors, and spark a national conversation about how this can be stopped as a matter of great urgency. Femicide is not just about statistics but real lives lost was the unmistakable message that the haunting images and sounds of the exhibition sought to convey.

Also on display were red shoes belonging to the victims of femicide. Joy Wanga, the curator of the exhibition, clad in a red outfit, got the opportunity to speak to the audience about the inspiration behind the initiative. She revealed that she got the idea from a Mexican artist called Elina Chauvet, whose red shoe installation aims at highlighting violence against or the killing of women in her country. “In November last year, we saw ninety women being killed in 99 days, ’’ she said. “In my head, I was like, that is a lot. That is a lot but no one is talking about it so what can I do about it in my capacity as an artist to add my voice into the conversation. When you read in the news ninety nine, you think it’s just a random number but what if people actually saw ninety nine shoes, ninety nine lives, ninety nine stories? Then it will actually spark the conversations so that we can end this crisis.” On why she chose red and not any other colour, she had this to say: “We are all different but one thing that brings us together is the fact that we bleed red.”

Spontaneous The Poet, a familiar act among the Sauti Sessions stalwarts having appeared in the first edition, delivered another incredible albeit heart-rending performance rendered in Dholuo and English, grappling with the gratuitous violence meted out to and killing of women in Kenya.

Ian Wafula’s CNN As Equals’ feature on femicide as it relates to female police officers was screened for the audience. It featured the story of Tiffany Wanyonyi, a police officer, who was brutally murdered by her husband. The case is being adjudicated in the courts. Also highlighted was the toll that femicide cases are having on female police officers assigned to gender desks in police police stations. Ian revealed that the feature ranked as one of the most difficult stories he has ever handled. CNN As Equals senior video producer Ladan Anoushfar weighed in on why Ian’s pitch was accepted and the challenges involved in shaping the story in a prerecorded video that was screened for the audience. She revealed that part of the feedback they got was from the chair of the anti-femicide taskforce in Kenya who admitted that the perspective that feature presented had not been captured in the taskforce’s final report.

The parents of Tiffany Wanyonyi were in the auditorium and were invited to the front.before a moment of silence was observed in honour of victims of femicide. They spoke of the untold pain of losing their beloved daughter to femicide and their quest for justice. “It is not easy until you are in those shoes, ” Tiffany’s mother said, her voice shaky and heavy with raw emotion. “There is no minute, no hour that we will stop thinking about Tiffany.

Njeri wa Migwi then took to the stage for an in-depth discussion with Ian Wafula on the twin scourges of gender-based violence (GBV) and femicide. She spoke passionately and eloquently about her challenging work in the trenches of fighting against these vices that have snowballed into a full-blown crisis. Earlier in the day before making her way to the Sauti Sessions event she had had to handle a femicide case of a woman in Lodwar who had been gangraped and brutally murdered, illustrating just how exacting her work is.

Asked about what kept her going in the face of a mentally-draining crisis, her response was emphatic, "Because these women mattered, because if I don’t advocate for them, who is going to advocate for them.” She also had the opportunity to field several questions from members of the public, ranging from patterns in GBV and Polycare to how members of the public can support her work.

The closing performance entitled Loss was done by Wandiri Karimi, the leader of The African Women' s Orchestra. She revealed that the song was inspired by her own personal experience as a survivor of GBV.  “The story behind this song is that I left five years ago so it has taken five years for me to speak like this in front of people, ” she said