Renowned as a land of geographical beauty and exciting safari parks, Kenya's dark side has been highlighted by a recent Amnesty report. Judith Crosbie reports on how violence against many women goes unpunished in a patriarchal society still influenced by tribal tradition

Try putting yourself in these shoes: you work every day collecting coffee beans in fields owned by your husband. You were sold to him by your father at 15 and forced into an arranged marriage you had no say in. At 14, you had been taken out of school and shortly afterwards underwent female circumcision which left you scared and in constant pain. When you were just one year married your husband beat you so badly he broke both your arms. When you went to the police they asked you what you had done to deserve it. You tried to get a divorce but realised it would cost a lot of money.

Although this may read as a horror story, it is reality for many women in Kenya, where the law still does not recognise domestic violence; where violence and crimes against women often go unpunished and where female circumcision remains widespread despite the passage of a law this year banning it.

An Amnesty International report published last month says Kenya has failed to protect women who have been sexually assaulted and raped. Rape is a crime committed across the ethnic and social divides, but women largely suffer in silence because they know that "reporting rape will not lead to a proper investigation and hardly ever to a prosecution".

The report adds:"The torture, including rape, of women by police, prison and other officials is reportedly widespread."

Judy Thongori is a lawyer based in Nairobi who is trying to change this. On a lecture tour in Ireland earlier this month she gave audiences an insight into the lives of Kenyan women, far removed from the happy images of the safari parks. Thongori along with other women lawyers runs the Federation of Women Lawyers , which helps women who go through the legal system and puts pressure on the government to bring about change.

"We would get about 40 women a day coming into our offices, and violence is the number one reason why women come to us," Thongori says. "Many have already been to the police but were not satisfied with the response they got."

A major problem is that women get frustrated by a system which has continually failed them. She cites one case where a woman was beaten by her husband and raped with the leg of a stool. Her husband was charged with assault and fined £100. Following the court appearance he beat her again. When she went to the lawyers' federation, they contacted the police, and new charges were brought against him. While the man was finally given six months in jail he was let out early under a presidential pardon.

There is no legal aid provided to people who cannot pay to go through the courts. "Access to justice is based on the ability to afford lawyers. This generally means poorer people are left out," she says. Up to 4,000 practising lawyers have been persuaded by the federation to represent and advise people for free.

The laws and customs in Kenya are heavily dominated by the 42 tribes which make up the population. Gaps in a legal system inherited from the British colonial regime are often bridged by local customs. Since tradition dictated that women were the property of their fathers and husbands, women rarely own property, are often uneducated and do not hold status with the tribe. Laws protecting the vulnerable often fall short: while the maximum sentence for raping an adult is life imprisonment, the maximum sentence for raping a child is 14 years. Rape falls under the Offences against Morality Act, but marital rape is not recognised as a criminal offence.

WHILE other African countries have a reputation for ignoring human rights, states such as Uganda and Tanzania have moved on as government institutions have become involved in protecting its citizens, Thongori says. Kenya has signed up to international treaties protecting human rights, but it has failed to adopt them into national law. President Daniel arap Moi has stated his commitment to gender equality but bills to outlaw discrimination and to recognise domestic violence have been held up in parliament.

The government's passing of a law banning female genital mutilation is a positive development, says Thongori.

"Although the practice is still widespread, it means organisations now have a legal framework with which to educate people against its wrongs."

A World Health Organisation report estimated that up to half of all Kenyan women, mostly in rural areas, undergo female circumcision.

If the outside world is to help Kenyan women, violence against them must be seen as a developmental issue rather than a problem to be dealt with by national governments, Thongori says. Funding must be given to the organisations working to help women.

"Women can be given pills, they can be given condoms but they can't negotiate for safe sex, they can't insist on a man using a condom if they know they will be beaten if they refuse sex." she says.

Is she confident things can change for women in Kenya?

"All of these changes are within people's abilities and powers and don't take a lot of energy or resources, it's just a case of understanding how important it is to bring the changes about, because without them we cannot move forward."