ON A MISSION TO TRACE THE MISSING VOICE-THE "UNHEARD" CRY OF RAPE VICTIMS: WOMEN WITH DISABILITIES-WWDs

Rape is rape, whether be it a woman raping a man, a man raping a woman, or any other form of sexual assault that happens to an individual without their consent. The women are the most common victims of rape than their male counterparts. This happens as a result of a number of reasons, the reasons range from cultural, social or even the most worse is when rape is being as a weapon of revenge or intimidation. Rape is a type of a sexual assault towards an individual which has a form of sexual intercourse, it is initiated by either one person or even more people, it is done without the consent of the victim.

Rape does not have to involve violence for it to qualify to be a case of rape, the act may be as a result of coercion, it may be as a result of abuse of authority by the person carrying out the act, it may also be as a result of an act of sexual abuse carried out to a person who is incapable of valid consent for example a person who is unconscious, incapacitated person or a person who is below the legally accepted age of consent.

There is a group of women whom the society seems to have turned their backs on them, these women who go through alot and it all goes without being noticed, it is a group of women whom people place in a category of asexual beings, a group of women who have suffered rape for a long period of time in the name of culture and other primitive beliefs. Disabled women are more likely to be victims of physical abuse and rape case than their non-disabled counterparts.

In Kenya, women with disabilities are raped and abused sexually in the pretext of culture and some form of myths about disability. There is a very rampart and very wrong misconception that has brought about a very awkward belief that if one sleeps with a disabled woman, there are chances of a cure for AIDS. This belief has increased the chances of rape against women with disabilities which in return brings along the increase of HIV/AIDS among women with disabilities and also unplanned if not unwanted pregnancies. This is mostly worse when experienced by women who are mentally handicapped due to the inability to have a clear picture of recalling or narrating what really happened and who did it to them, the effects of such experiences by women with disabilities brings double trouble, first the trouble of having to live with a disability, a condition that hinders them to live fully as they would wish to due to the many societal barriers, the second barrier being the stigma of going through a traumatic experience of rape. This type of experience in common cases can lead to stress or even depression that may bring alot of psychological torture.