GILES CLARKE

In the Kara Olmurani safe house on the outskirts of Nairobi, fifteen-year-old Muriel and her 7-month-old baby look out of the window into the playground below. Muriel was raped at school at age 13 by a young man who entered the school grounds and drugged her. She became pregnant from that rape, and hospital authorities informed the police. To date, the perpetrator has not been found.


The Kara Olmurani Shelter in Nairobi, Kenya, is a safe house for some 30 young girls aged 14 years and below who have gone through sexual abuse and continue to be exposed to re-victimization over and over again. Kara Olmurani means "I am a warrior”.
Once at the shelter, highly-trained female counselors help the girls using different programs and tools that are child-centered and focused on a healing journey. The goal is to empower each little warrior, one soul at a time, with purpose, value, and dignity, in a safe and secure environment toward their reintegration into society. 


In January 2023, I accompanied New York Times writer Nick Kristof to a shelter to photograph girls aged 14 or under who have suffered severe sexual abuse. The walled safe house, run by a nonprofit called Kara Olmurani, is located on the outskirts of Nairobi and home to 24 young girls, whose stories are harrowing. 


The tree of hope...photographs of some girls who have completed counseling at the Kara Olmurani house in Nairobi. There are currently 24 young girls at the shelter who were all abused by older men and in some cases, their fathers.

One of the young Kara Olmurani girls while playing hide and seek in the courtyard of the protected house in Nairobi.

The Kara Olmurani shelter has 24 girls, and in only one case has there been a prosecution. That case involved a man who regularly raped his 9-year-old stepdaughter and was only caught when seen by a group of men who witnessed an attack in a field near the family home. 

Fourteen-year-old sexual assault survivor, Nancy, washes dishes at the Kara Olumurani safe house in Nairobi, Kenya. Nancy was attacked and raped by a policeman when she was 11 years old while walking her young brother home from school. The policeman has still never been identified.

'I am a girl; smart, strong and beautiful'. 

A makeshift picnic table, and one broken chair, in the garden of the Kara Olumurani shelter for abused women in Nairobi, Kenya.

One of the 24 sexually abused girls who now live in the protected environment of the Kara Olmurani safe house. 'Being with other girls in the same situation has made us stronger. It is safe in here'.

Muriel, aged 15, in the Kara Olumurani safe house in Nairobi, Kenya. She gave birth to a little girl when she was 14 years old after an attack on the grounds of her school. “I could not tell anyone,” Muriel, 14, told me. “My mum would not have understood. But here I can talk'.

Young sexual abuse victims at Kara Olumurani shelter in Nairobi.

The World Health Organization estimates that almost one-third of women worldwide have experienced physical or sexual violence, with rates exceptionally high in developing countries.

Sexual violence persists because it’s hard to talk about. It thrives in silence, leaving children nowhere to turn.

'There are opportunities even in the most difficult moments.'

Messages of strength and hope are dotted around the shelter.

The Rev. Terry Gobanga, who founded Kara Olmurani, is also a rape victim. While on her way to the church as a young bride, Terry was attacked and raped on her wedding day in 2004. Once she had recovered from the ordeal, she regularly counseled sexual assault survivors. She was frustrated that abused children often had no safe place to go, so she started Kara Olmurani and managed it on a shoestring budget. It takes in girls 14 and under but can't begin to meet the need. If Gobanga can raise the money, she would like to expand the safe house and open a similar home for abused boys.

“People are not willing to talk about the sexual abuse of children,” said the Rev. Terry Gobanga, “They’re not willing to confront it.”

A teddy bear sits on a bed in the Kara Olmurani shelter for young abused women. The house currently has 24 girls, all of whom have been sexually abused, and in only one case has there been a prosecution. Impunity continues in almost sexual abuse cases, not only in Kenya but in nearly all regions of Africa and beyond. 'We are here to give the girls strength,' says one of the dedicated female managers who help counsel and run the house.

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