Cultural Shock and Domestic Abuse among Kenyans in the US [VIDEO]

Domestic violence is a subject that is considered a private affair if not a conversational taboo amongst many individuals, communities and especially in african cultures.

Yet, this is a social vice that if left unresolved threatens to maintain its dragon head in a vicious circle of occurrence including amongst our diaspora families and in many a case result in serious bodily harm and sometimes death.

In fact in the last few years, Kenyans living in the diaspora and indeed those back home have been shocked by extreme cases of domestic violence in the US that have come to public knowledge only after resulting in the death of a spouse.

In a past Diaspora Conference held in Washington DC and organized by the Kenyan Diaspora in the US in conjunction with the Kenya Embassy, participants at a Women Rights is Human Rights session discussed the root causes of the increasing cases of domestic violence amongst Kenyans in the US.

And while many explanations may be floated to explain the motivation behind this crime especially in the Diaspora, it has to be said that there’s absolutely no justification for the physical or emotional violence on one spouse by the other.