{"id":81454,"date":"2015-01-12T10:43:17","date_gmt":"2015-01-12T10:43:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=81454"},"modified":"2015-01-12T10:43:17","modified_gmt":"2015-01-12T10:43:17","slug":"thoughts-kkd-politics-sex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2015\/01\/thoughts-kkd-politics-sex\/","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts on KKD and the politics of sex"},"content":{"rendered":"
My thoughts are all over the place on this KKD rape issue. The story is that, popular broadcaster, Kwasi Kyei Darkwa also known as KKD has been charged with rape. He was arrested in December 2014 for allegedly raping a 19-year-old woman at the African Regent Hotel in Accra.<\/p>\n
The details keep changing, thereby making it difficult to make sense of what happened that day. The lawyers claim it was consensual sex. The Police report says KKD forcibly had sex with the young woman. Everyone I meet has a different strand to add.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been told the two didn\u2019t know themselves until that day. Someone mentioned that the victim was a willing participant because she kissed him back on that leaked video. I\u2019ve heard so much and I\u2019m not sure I\u2019m any closer to the truth. It is hard to pick a side to support based on the details we know.
\nThe nature of the debate throws up many issues that ought to be considered separately. People have taken entrenched positions. They are either shaming the victim for taking her vagina along to the event or berating KKD for sleeping with a 19-year-old \u2013 not for the alleged crime of rape.<\/p>\n
Some people have expressed their disgust at the age-gap between the two. Fathers with daughters the age of the victim are appalled. So are the boys closer to her age. \u201cCouldn\u2019t KKD find someone close to his age, how could he sleep with a 19-year-old,\u201d they ask. They appear to be more offended bythe fact that KKD slept with a 19-year-old.It\u2019s like they would have been okay with it if the victim had been violated by someone her age or if KKD had done it to someone older.<\/p>\n
Personally, I find the obsession with the age gap disturbing. The age is irrelevant. Women seldom date men their age, anyway. The real problem is the sexual exploitation of Ghanaian women. The Ark Foundation reports that eight percent of Ghanaian women have been raped while 21 percent were forced to have sex with their husbands. Six percent reported having been defiled by an authority figure and a whopping 95 percent of women who have been raped did not report the incident.<\/p>\n
Rape is pervasive and under-reported in Ghana. Every day women here are exploited in humiliating ways that stop them from ever reporting the crime.<\/p>\n