In Kenya, being an adolescent girl comes at a cost. From sexual harassment, early marriages, unwanted pregnancy and dropping out of school, Kenyan adolescent girls face a myriad of challenges in their journey to adulthood.
Media Centre Archives - Page 15 of 16 - CREAW KENYA
The journey towards having gender based violence recognized as a significant threat to individuals ,families ,communities and our economy at large has been slow and arduous. While existing legislation such as the sexual offences Act and the Constitution expressly outlaw acts of sexual violence and prohibit cruel degrading treatment and discrimination on basis of gender, that is little consolation to the high number of women who continue to suffer physical ,psychological and economic abuse. To these women, the provisions of the law are abstract ideas which do not seem to be able to prevent and adequately respond to their plight.
“I met Sheck Mwamuzadi in Nairobi’s South C estate where I was working as a house help while he was my boss’s driver. We became friends and later on started dating secretly without the knowledge of my boss,” Leila Elizabeth narrates. Born in a humble family of two in Machakos, 19 year old Elizabeth dropped out of school in class eight. Her single mother could no longer raise her school fees.
Christabel Otsieno, Radio Presenter with Amani FM Nakuru County. |
Joyce Muriuki. Member of County Assembly Nyaki East Ward, Tharaka-Nithi |
SGBV – Janjaruka Maze Game |
Interview with Zulfa Hakim, Special Elect – MCA Nairobi. |
Interview with Florence Wamboi, MCA Nakuru County, Elbagon Ward. |
Interview with Immaculate Musya, Special Elect, MCA Nairobi. |
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While a traditional one stop shop ideally offers these services within the same premises, CREAW intends to replicate that model by networking and coordinating the services in Kibera thereby creating a strong partnership with the concerned institutions to ensure survivors of GBV access the services of the organizations within the partnership.
Earlier this year 16-year-old ‘Liz’ was reportedly attacked and raped by six men in western Kenya, before being dumped, bleeding and unconscious, in a deep sewage ditch.
Liz suffered a broken back and suffered serious internal injuries from the rape. The three men accused of gang-raping her were ordered by police to cut grass as punishment.
We have been exploring methods of communicating messages about gender based violence. With the help of Kueneza Arts, we’ve been painting murals with simple pictorial messaging in five locations in Kibera.
Soweto village in Kibera, Nairobi, is a region beset by poverty and malnutrition. On Saturday 23 Nov CREAW will facilitate discussions on gender based violence during activities with Arigatou International and Chemichemi Ya Uzima Clinic. At this event at Soweto Baptists Primary School, parents will hear about positive parenting and birth registration, while their children will receive medical treatments. We welcome Fred Nyabera, who directs the Inter-Faith Initiative to End Child Poverty.
CREAW was pleased to represent Civil Society Organisations and the women of Kenya at the recent Government of Kenya (GoK) – UN Joint Programme on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (JP GEWE) training workshop to strengthen the capacity of government to collect, analyse and use sex disaggregated data (SDD), held in Mombasa in mid-July 2013. Run jointly by UN Women and the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, the workshop focused on gender mainstreaming across statistics gathering activities in Government Ministries.
It is our diversity makes us strong. As individuals, we bring our own experiences and ideas in order to form collective actions and strategies that are firmly based on what works.