Calls grow for concerted efforts to end GBV

The 16 days of activism against GBV started on November 25 and players have said there is a need for concerted efforts to protect women from the vice while encouraging victims to make reports.

On Wednesday, Journalists for Human Rights, an NGO that works with the media, civil society and the government to champion the rights of women and girls, brought together a group of players with the view of seeking solutions for GBV.

Sammy Muraya, the organisation’s project manager, said GBV has been normalised in society, with many victims not seeing the need to report.

The majority of those who report, he noted, do so when it is too late. This, he said, makes it difficult to have the issues appropriately resolved.

“We want a society that reports such matters promptly and recognises signs of violence because in most cases, abusive people exhibit some signs before it gets violent,” he said.

Journalist TerryAnn Chebet said it is appalling that only 40 per cent of women who undergo violence report it.

According to the Gender Based Violence Recovery Centre, one in every three Kenyan girls experience sexual violence before attaining the age of 18, while between 39 and 47 per cent of all women experience GBV in their lifetime.

“The question is what role do we all play to ensure that we are fighting the fight and walking the walk? We want to spark multi-sectorial conversations globally and call for more action by states to protect women and human rights defenders, and create awareness on the urgent need for policies to prevent and respond to GBV.”

But Njeri Migwi, an activist, urged the government to fund shelters that provide safety for victims.

Njeri runs Usikimye, an organisation that fights GBV, and has three shelters, two for women and children and one for men. They are mostly full.

The victims are accommodated for at least 90 days and provided with food, counselling and legal and medical aid to help them leave abusive relationships and rebuild their lives.

Njeri said shelters play a vital role in breaking up the cycle of violence, and confirmed that 75 per cent of the victims don’t go back to their relationships as they are empowered to want to do better for themselves and their children.

But the country, she said, does not have enough shelters to cater to the high number of GBV victims.

“The government does not run any shelter in Nairobi. I advocate capacity building of the existing shelters and the state to step in and fund some of the shelters because they are expensive to run,” Njeri said.

Anne-Rose Osamba from Uzalendo Africa Initiative hailed the government for establishing a Sexual Gender-Based Violence division at the Shanzu law courts in Mombasa.

The first SGBV court in the country was launched by Chief Justice Martha Koome in March this year and is expected to speed-up the clearing of cases in the region.

Kilifi county has a clearance rate of 44 per cent for SGBV cases, Mombasa’s stands at 60 per cent and Kwale 65 per cent, which Koome said delays justice for survivors.

In October last year, the National Police Service launched a policy for an integrated response to GBV on which Policare centres will be anchored.

Policare, a programme that seeks to provide one-stop centres that will provide comprehensive support services including legal and psychosocial support to GBV victims without being sent from one government department to another.

The centres will have courts, forensic laboratories, Directorate of Public Prosecutions offices and social services providers with police officers attached there for human resources.

Kenndy Otina from FEMNET, a Pan African Women Rights organisation, said a lot has been achieved in terms of policies that have enabled human rights defenders to be better organised and compelled the government to create opportunities for women.

However, Otina said implementation of the policies is undertaken by institutions that are male dominated.

“We need to ask what kind of men we have in our society and whether they are prepared to come to terms with the reality of a woman who is well aware of her rights and is economically empowered,” he said.

Lilian Museka from the Association of Media Women in Kenya said they are developing a strategy to address violence against women on social media as many have been exiting online spaces over it.

She accused the media of continuously perpetuating violence against women by objectifying them as sex objects.

“The media needs to build the capacity of journalists to report on GBV. Most journalists report without understanding of what GBV is and perpetuate violence knowingly or unknowingly”.

She urged media houses to develop policies that address GBV, noting that AMWIK has partnered with JHR to have media houses customise and adopt a policy they developed.