Stop catcalling, 'groping' women on Nairobi streets, be nice

As a woman, walking on the streets of Nairobi has never been a cakewalk.

I honestly cannot count in one hand alone the number of catcalls, cheeky whistles and 'babe calls' I get in a day whenever I step out of the house to walk on the streets.

Of course every person likes it when they are complimented, but some of these compliments border on sexual harassment and indignity.

Sadly, our good sisters who fail to respond to these annoying cat-calls or forced hand-grabs, are often treated to a cocktail of abuses that would shock even the devil himself. 

So, last week, a hardworking hawker who was selling his goods along Tom Mboya street blocked my path. He was holding a more than average size trouser, which he wanted to 'show' me. I had no intention of buying – and so I made as if to walk away and uttered a quick 'thank you'. The man forcefully held my hand, and pulled me towards himself, our chests almost touched.

Then he began to talk almost seductively, calling me 'msupa', 'mrembo', and looking into my eyes quite suggestively. Don't get it wrong, I love being called mrembo, every girl does.

This man held onto my hand [with both his hands] for a good one minute, before three of his male friends joined him in their little game. I was fuming inside – but again afraid.

I know many of my friends who daily continue to suffer such indignities just because they are women.

A friend of mine, a married woman, had an awkward encounter at a crowded political rally she recently attended. She said that men were openly harassing women, groping them in the sea of humanity. She almost fainted.

Some of us women have become objects of play for men who cannot on their own approach a woman and shoot their shot confidently. Such men hide behind crowds from where they can express their repressed masculinity.

These kinds of men cannot approach a well-dressed woman, and ask them out – decently.  They would rather die. So, to lie to themselves that they are still men after all, they will resort to harassing girls on the streets, and later congratulate themselves on their way home; telling themselves how good they are at the 'art of seduction'.

You don’t have to catcall us, slap our behinds, make demeaning remarks about our makeups, hairline, panty-line, wig or shoes to feel like a man.

The most shocking thing is that most notorious menfolk are your regular bus conductor sitting at a crowded bus station, hawker, some boda-boda riders, and street urchins.

Let’s treat our women with respect. These are our sisters, mothers, aunts, mother-in-law and if you like, our future grandmothers.

You can still be a man even without harassing girls on the streets.