An autobiographical play titled Free Me is drawing public attention in Kenya, reflecting the gender-based violence (GBV) crisis in the East African nation. The work, written by television and stage producer Gathoni Kimuyu, is based on her own harrowing experience in an abusive marriage.
Data shows that rates of femicide and abuse in Kenya have risen in recent years. Hundreds of women took to the streets in the capital Nairobi earlier this month, demanding that the government declare a national emergency over the issue.
In January 2025, after a series of marches and online campaigns such as #StopKillingUs and #EndFemicideKe, the Kenyan government set up a technical working group to identify trends, hotspots, and causes of GBV and femicide. The group's report highlighted social and cultural factors such as patriarchal structures and gender inequality, and recommended legal amendments to make femicide a distinct crime separate from ordinary murder. It also called on the president to declare GBV a national emergency. However, the government has yet to implement these recommendations.
The play Free Me reenacts Kimuyu's life from her teenage years in the outskirts of Nairobi in the early 2000s to the present. The story is told through different stages, with different actors playing her: a lively 16-year-old girl full of energy; a 21-year-old woman who marries and begins to suffer abuse; a 25-year-old who gives birth and leaves her husband; and a 30-year-old woman who rebuilds her life. In one scene, the main character's husband says, “You will never find anyone who loves you like I love you,” prompting the audience to laugh mockingly, then applaud when the wife responds, “Your love is what I will leave behind forever.”
Director and co-writer Mugambi Nthiga emphasized: “This is a play about gender-based violence from someone who lived it, but it is staged in a context where more than one woman a day is not so lucky and cannot have an ending like in the play.”
Actress Renee Gichuki, who plays Kimuyu at 16, said the play is timely because Kimuyu's experience is not unique, and because GBV “has become a crisis.” “The person next to you has experienced it or knows someone who has,” she said.
Audience member Wambui Njeri, 24, a business owner, remarked that the play humanizes victims, showing that perpetrators can be anyone. “It shows that it's the everyday woman, the everyday man,” she said. Her friend Patrick Muchiri, 40, a communications expert, shared: “As men, we really need to do better... Yes, we are the backbone of family and society, but that does not mean belittling or causing violence or harm.”
Kimuyu hopes the play will encourage victims to speak out without shame and shift perspectives on women's safety: stop blaming victims and hold abusers accountable. “Nothing makes people empathize more than a story about someone they know,” she said. “Seeing someone survive and actually be on this side makes people believe it's possible.”
