This is a true account of how a young Kenyan girl became a victim of rape – reported directly from Maldives.

I, Ms Pauline Plaraj, am a young Kenyan national who, after completing my higher studies in aviation and tourism, came to Maldives after securing a once-in-a-life-time ‘dream come true’ job from a high-end tourist resort. I was overjoyed and had high hopes of making a decent living in a country well known for its warm sunny beaches, pristine lagoons and generous and warm hospitality.

Soon after my arrival, the resort where I was working was shut down following the Covid19 pandemic. Since we were relieved from duty, I decided to apply for job in a local company in Male’, the capital of the Maldives. I considered myself lucky to get the job, considering that the government and business were being shut down following the health emergency declared by the government

Those who know me well will tell you that I am by nature a joyful, happy, hardworking and honest girl. Yet, there are some, who instead of condemning those who committed this very gruesome and cruel act, through several fake accounts, are trying to vilify and assassinate my character – an unforgivable and uncouth act, which should be condemned by all civilized and decent people.

I am a girl who grew up in a western society and as such, music, singing and partying was nothing unconventional for me. Even in my own country, these very acts are a part of our life. Even if it is taboo, partying is nothing strange or uncommon among local youths, especially those coming from higher echelons of the political spectrum.

I was thrilled when I got an invitation to a party and gladly accepted the offer. The venue was a safari boat anchored in the Hulhumale’ harbour. The date was June 25, 2020 and the time mentioned was 10pm – 1 am. Being a foreigner, I decided to go with a local friend. At the end of the party, everyone was getting ready to disembark and go onshore. And so was I. The dinghy which was used to ferry the invitees from Hulhumale to boat and back, was a small one which could carry only three at a time. When I and my friend went to get on the dinghy, I was asked to wait for the next turn.

Choke holding, raping and jumping into the sea

As I was anxiously waiting for the dinghy to come, two men, apparently quite drunk, approached me and started to pat me, hold me, grab me, and force me to dance with them. I resisted as I was anxious to go home and was in no mood to dance again. When I resisted, I was told that they were the owners of the safari boat and that they were linked to politically very powerful people. To escape from them, I ran away and climbed up to the sundeck. While I was sitting there, the same two people approached me and asked me if I was willing to do a threesome. I told them that I am not a prostitute who works for money, and declined to accept their demand. Suddenly, one of them held my neck from behind, choking me. He then pulled me and pushed me flat on a mattress on the sundeck. His grip was so firm, I could not cry for help and I felt so helpless. Every time he realized I gasping for breath he loosens his grip a little and chokes me again. While he was doing this, the second man was tearing my clothes. He removed his own clothes and knelt in front of me and raped me. Having satisfied himself, he got up to give a chance to his friend. I said to myself, dying is better than getting raped. I took the opportunity, and using all my energy I jumped up, pushed the guy in fron of me, ran away as fast as I could, and without a second thought jumped into the sea.

While I was looking for the direction of the jetty, the two rapists came in the dinghy and asked me to come onboard. When I refused, they made a noose out of the rope they had and through on me. I got caught in the noose and they pulled me towards the dinghy, pulled me up and said that they were going to the jetty. They apologized and said that I could now go home
On the way to the jetty, the one who was choking me, said that he wants a last kiss and tried to grab me towards him. I resisted and started shouting at the top of my voice. By the time the dinghy reached the jetty, I saw two policemen standing there. I told them of my ordeal and the two rapists started to verbally abuse the two police officers. The two officers arrested them.
At first, the two officers treated me very kindly. I was told that I am being taken to the Hulhumale police station to take an affidavit, and to lodge and official complaint. They told me that I would be given a rape sample kit, and that I would be sent to the hospital for a medical/legal examination. I agreed.

The rapists were all the while shouting at the police officers and throwing vituperative and censoriously abusive language at them. After a while, the officer-in-charge of the station came to me and tried to calm me and console me. He assured me that the two rapists would be prosecuted, and that they [police] would not stop until justice was served.

Sudden change in police demeanor, release of rapists and victim sent home

The police had barely scratched the surface in their investigation, when the in-charge got a phone call. As soon as he finished the call, I could sense the sudden change in his demeanor. He started asking me questions. He asked me if I had a work permit, and why I came to Maldives. He told me consuming alcohol was a crime in Maldives, and that he could smell alcohol from body. I was asked the type of alcohol I was drinking. He asked me if I was a prostitute, to which I replied I was not. He then said to me, if I was not a prostitute, why was I wearing a tight mini skirt, and why I was on a safari boat in the middle of the night�?? By this time the in-charge got another phone call, and he walked away from me towards the entrance.

After a while, another officer came and told me that I have to go home and that they would contact me to continue with the investigation. When he told me this, I asked him why he was sending me without taking any samples or referring me to a doctor. He told me that they would contact me later to collect samples and for physical examination, and that it was in my best interest that I go home now. He then whispered that the rapists are very powerful and influential people in this government, and that one of them was a relative of the president. He also told me that he has already received several phone calls from the head office requesting to release the rapists and to send me home. I remember him saying that some of the calls were from very high authorities. As if to make me happy, he said that the entire police unit was very unhappy and disappointed for having to release the rapists, and that this was the first time rapists captured from the crime scene are being released.
At that point I felt completely hopeless. I didn’t know what to do. I felt I was surrounded by emptiness and darkness. Fear gripped me to the core. I felt weak, my whole body trembled and my knees gave way. I began to wonder where I could go, or to whom could approach to lodge a complaint or seek justice?

Threatenihg call and offer of a half a million US Dollars.

When I came home my body was aching. My dress was torn apart, and I was soaked in salt water. I urinated a lot of blood and till now, traces of blood can be seen coming. Before I went to bed, I got a call from a number which I do not know. I picked it up thinking it was a call from the police. The caller warned me not to talk about my ordeal and not to lodge another complaint with the police. The caller said that if I did so, I would be labelled a prostitute and deported from the country. He also told me that being a foreigner, particularly a “black�? woman, no Maldivian would accept my word. He also threatened to tarnish my image as a prostitute in the Maldivian media. He told me that should the police or any media inquired about the rape case, deny that I was raped and to tell them that I was intoxicated and that I do not remember anything. He said that if I did so, I would be paid a handsome amount, and that I would receive protection. He, very confidently, said to me that the police, the gangs, the legislature and the judiciary are all under their full control. He warned me to learn a lesson from what happened at the police station and to stay quiet. According to the caller, they were arrested by some junior officers on duty, who had no idea as to who they were, and that they too would by now know who they are. If this case goes without any further incidence, he offered me half a million US Dollars. I was so scared; I switched off my phone and stayed at home.

Since I kept my phone off, my office friends came to visit me. I narrated my ordeal to one of my friends, and I expressed my desire to share the crime committed against me with the local media. She arranged a reporter from “Mendhuru�? – a local online newspaper. The reporter being a close friend of my office friend, I narrated the whole incidence to him as accurately as I could. To prove that I am a genuine victim of a rape case, I showed the reporter my Facebook and Instagram profiles and told him the name of the company I was currently working. I also gave him permission to use my real name and my photos. The reporter told me that there was no safety for employees in Maldives, especially for women employees, and that he was committed to expose rapists, bring them to justice, and to bring those cases to the attention of the international media.

I also told him that I narrowly escaped death as a result of jumping into the sea, and the physical and mental injury they inflicted upon me would never ever be forgotten. I am currently experiencing several PTSD symptoms and it is my desire and hope to be able to leave this country as soon as possible

Source : Mendhuru news

Consumptive tourism which includes wildlife trophy hunting and hunting for meat contributes 90% of the tourism revenue that southern Africa generates annually said an Oxford University trained Associate Professor of ecology and economics, Dr Brian Child, speaking at the Africa Wildlife Economy Summit.

Dr Child said that non-consumptive tourism that includes travel tourism only contributes a distant 10% of southern Africa’s annual tourism revenue.

“If Africa is serious about growing wildlife economy it needs to grow both its non-consumptive and consumptive use tourism enterprises, particularly consumptive tourism that Dr Brian Child said contributes 90% of southern African countries’ annual tourism earnings,” said Dr Morrison Mtsambiwa, one of Africa’s top ecologists and former CEO of the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (where Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zambia share their borders) and former Director General of the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority.

Beyond tourism enterprises, the growth of Africa’s wildlife economy can be further boosted by trade in Africa’s abundant wildlife products such as ivory and rhino horn.

Sadly, the text of the UNEP convened and Space for Giants (a western animal rights groups that is against hunting and ivory trade) sponsored Africa Wildlife Economy Summit held in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe from 24-25 June 2019 was disturbingly silent on consumptive use economic activities such as hunting.

Therefore, the agenda that was set by Kenya-based UNEP and Space for Giants (SfG) to grow the African wildlife economy exclusively using non-consumptive tourism raised a lot of curious and puzzling questions than answers.

As the reality sank in that non-consumptive use was curiously excluded from the Summit agenda, the next and inevitable question was who would put it consumptive use on the Summit agenda?

To the relief of the pro-consumptive tourism delegates at the Summit, Zimbabwe President of Zimbabwe, Emerson Mnangagwa authoritatively and refreshingly brought the consumptive use of wildlife issues on the Summit agenda while delivering his keynote address to the Africa Wildlife Economy Summit. To the shock and of course disappointment of animal rights groups, President Mnangagwa touched on hunting, a topic that was suspiciously excluded from the Summit agenda.

“Safari hunting is a vital cog in wildlife economy,” said President Mnangagwa. “Profits from hunting are used to provide water and fencing to reduce human wildlife conflict and law enforcement against poachers. We continue to call for free trade in hunting products as these have positive impact on the economies of our countries.”

This pro-hunting remark spelt doom and failure to the western animal rights groups’ attempt to exclude wildlife use from the Summit agenda. Of course they shared that shock with local anti-wildlife use tourism business leaders that had a hand in crafting the wrong and suspicious non-consumptive use ‘recipe’ for growing Africa’s wildlife economy.

President Mnangagwa said that the animal rights groups were wrong in their thinking that animals should not be used to sustain people’s livelihoods.

As President Mnangagwa continued to use his keynote address to put on the Africa Wildlife Economy Summit agenda, the sorely missed consumptive use issues that could not go without being discussed if Africa is serious about growing its wildlife economy; smiles were visibly written on almost all the pro-sustainable use African delegates with long faces worn by the western animal rights groups that wanted to hijack the Summit to introduce animal rights groups values into southern Africa.

President Mnangagwa then said in a pointed call for Zimbabwe to be allowed to sell its stockpiled ivory and rhino horns, “Currently Zimbabwe has about US$600 million worth of ivory and rhino horns stocks, most of which came from natural attrition of those animals. “If we are allowed to dispose the same under agreed parameters, the revenue derived therefrom would suffice to finance our operational conservation efforts for the next two decades. We encourage a process where accruing benefits from natural resources are fairly and equitably shared among communities living within wildlife areas. This way the wildlife resources add value and improve the quality of life of local communities and the quality of life of animals themselves.”

If this was a boxing match against animal rights groups then President Mnangagwa must have landed the knockout punch on animal rights groups when he went further to explain that animal rights groups are a threat to wildlife conservation because they put wildlife above the people and yet God teaches that human beings are the custodians of wildlife and should benefit from it.

President Mnangagwa said that it was high time that the UN Convention on International Trade In Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) was made aware that the one-shoe-size fits all approach that is creeping in its decision-making process to ban ivory trade was an unfair and intolerable method of determining who should trade or should not trade in wildlife products such as ivory and rhino horn.

This was a timely message to CITES member countries worldwide, whose votes determine whether or not proponent countries can be allowed to trade in ivory and rhino horn. The CITES Secretary General Yvonne Higuero whose organization presides over the CITES voting system got the message loud and clear as she was seated in the front row as President Mnangagwa delivered his keynote address.

President Mnangagwa said that it was crucial that Africa consolidates its position in support of sustainable development as we head to CITES COP18.

Soon after, President Mnangagwa finished his laudable pro-consumptive tourism and wildlife use speech all the other southern African countries presidents also similarly spoke in support of ivory trade and consumptive use and the need for rural communities living side by side with wildlife to also benefit from it. It was impressive that the southern African countries presidents were not divided by western animal rights group as sadly happened during president Khama’s animal rights influenced wildlife management era, when Botswana uncharacteristically and worryingly opposed ivory trade and hunting. The united southern African presidents included Edgar Lungu of Zambia, Hage Geingob of Namibia and Mokweetsi Masisi of Botswana as well as Angolan president Jao Lourenco who was represented by his minister of environment.

Fourteen African ministers of environment from all regions of Africa attended the Summit.
Rwanda President Kagame while African Union Chair was persuaded to support this initiative to hold the first ever Africa Wildlife Economy Summit in Victoria Falls Zimbabwe.
Over 40 community representatives from 12 African countries attended the African Wildlife Economy Summit and called for the need to reduce poverty at household level through turning wildlife into a rural economic engine.

“The declaration is about sustainable use which includes hunting and need for the communities living next to protected areas to benefit from wildlife and natural resources,” Dr Lamson Maluleke a representative of South Africa’s Limpopo Province-based Makuleke Community.

Meanwhile, Mr Charles Jonga, the Executive Director for the Zimbabwe Communal Areas Management Programme For Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE) Association said that he was not aware that the Space for Giants “is an animal rights organization.” He said that he was concerned that there had been an attempt to have the African Wildlife Economy Summit exclusively focus on non-consumptive tourism.

One of Southern Africa’s most successful non-consumptive tourism businesspeople who is supporting the Africa Wildlife Economy initiative, Mr Derek Joubert publicly announced his anti-hunting position while taking part in a tourism investment challenges panel discussion. “I am not a hunter,” he said. “And so I was a bit worried coming up here (on the stage) and be sustainably harvested myself. Wildlife is what we have to protect, I don’t even like the word conservation I think we have got to evolve this to a new conversation – a new ethic, a new earth ethic.”

Mr Joubert said that one of the initiatives that they are working on is to raise US$200 million to acquire tourism properties and operate them for three years, working with communities and in the last phase between three and four years do a complete handover to the communities.

“I know that the Space for Giants is an animal rights groups and that they are coming in the name of ecotourism which is an easy product to sell to communities and internationally,” said a Namibian representative for the Namibian Association of CBNRM Support Organisations (NACSO), Ms Max Louis. “Therefore, they are using ecotourism to derail the sustainable use agenda in southern Africa. We will not allow animal rights groups to come and change our sustainable use agenda in southern Africa. We will continue to defend sustainable use. We were aware that the animal rights agenda was being forced on us.”

However, while Southern Africans might not fully welcome the Space for Giants and Derek Joubert sponsored non-consumptive tourism drive in southern Africa, well placed sources said that they have already started meeting southern African governments, in order to introduce this initiative.

They have also started promoting non-consumptive tourism projects in Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda where progress is at a comparatively advanced stage compared to their initial efforts in southern Africa.

“At the moment the consumptive tourism such as hunting is bringing much more money to the majority of Africans,” said Alderman Jerry Gotora, the Chairman of painted dog project and Founding Director of Gonarezhou Conservation Trust. “The capitalists don’t want to see more money going to the majority of Africans. They think that blacks from this region shouldn’t be privileged to enjoy money from hunting. They want to keep money to themselves through an exclusive focus on non-consumptive tourism. That is why they excluded consumptive use from the agenda of the Africa Wildlife Economy Summit.”
The Africa Wildlife Economy Summit came to southern Africa at a time when Botswana President Masisi is facing fierce animal rights opposition for listening to his country’s citizens, particularly those from rural communities to resume hunting.

Well-placed sources said that President of Botswana Mogkweetsi Masisi had to be persuaded to attend the African Wildlife Economy Summit after refusing to attend a Summit sponsored by the Species for Giants; an animal rights group that worked with Mokgweetsi’ well publicized opponent, former President of Botswana Khama. The Space for Giants reportedly apologised to President Masisi for working against both the citizens of Botswana’s conservation values and his political future but he still turned down the Space for Giants overtures. Well placed sources said that President Masisi only agreed to attend the Africa Wildlife Economy Summit after having been persuaded to do so by a President from a very friendly southern African country.

Ironically, President Masisi is curiously listed as a member of the Space for Giants on their website, alongside with Presidents of Kenya, Uganda and representatives of western animal rights groups, etc. He was apparently made to sign-up to this membership incognito when he succeeded Khama. There is no doubt that President Masisi might be making frantic efforts to have his country and face photo removed from the Space for Giants website.