Kenyan grandmothers learn martial arts to fight rapists

In Nairobi, Kenya, grandmothers are learning martial arts to fight rapists.

Inside Korogocho slums in Nairobi, these grandmothers spend time learning the fundamentals of martial arts to help defend themselves from rapists.

In some parts of Kenya, some men believe that sleeping with older women is a form of cleansing after committing a crime.

 

"Boys had crazy ideas that after a robbery, when they sleep with an old woman, it's like they are cleansed. The young boys would strangle them ... Every time we went to pick up the corpse of an old woman, my heart used to bleed" Sheila Kariuki, a former resident of Korogocho told Christian Today in June 2015.

Martial art class for grannies in Kenya
(THE NET)

 

It is also believed that older women are less likely to have HIV. To avoid being raped and strangled to death, older women are taking part in a martial arts program called 'cucus' which means grandmas in a local Kenyan language.

The women gather weekly and are taught how to break noses with just the palm of their hands, hit the groin areas of their assailants and how to poke their eyes with fingers.

Older grannies who can't defend themselves are taught how to feign madness. The oldest woman in the class is 85 years old.

14 percent of women aged 15-49 have experienced sexual violence in that country according to the 2014 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey.