A Clarion Call to Action Against Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV)
The past decade has seen a dramatic rise in the cases of violence against women. In fact, the newly released Kenya Demographic Health Survey (KDHS) 2014, confirms that domestic violence remains one of the more common and persistent forms of Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) in Kenya. 38% of ever-married women age 15-49 have ever experienced physical violence committed by their husband/partner, while 23% experienced violence in the 12 months prior to the survey. 9% of ever-married men age 15-49 have ever experienced physical violence committed by their wife/partner. Domestic violence, in Kenya has been allowed to flourish in the midst of the country’s socio-economic transitional phase of governance structures.
Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) is indisputably a violation of human rights. Most people remain somewhat naive about the prevalence of SGBV in the Kenya. The public continues to perceive SGBV as the unfortunate predicament of the individual victim and their families, rather than a socio-economic and human rights problem. Kenya is slowly backtracking to the archaic era where a culture of violence particularly on women and girls is justified, habitual, regularized and the voices of survivors silenced. The culture of silence is perpetuated across generations amongst communities and victims, alike. Consequently, violence against women is inadvertently attributed as inherent and internal to the country’s patriarchal culture. All this is happening against the backdrop of inertia by the country’s leadership a fact that can subliminally support this entire spectrum of appalling actions to thrive in our country. Silence on SGBV can serve as a pointer to silence women and children who continue to bear the greatest brunt of these ills.
Initiating legal procedures against a perpetrator is cumbersome, long and not survivor-friendly. The most recent incident of alleged rape by a member of parliament is a case in point. Once having entered the legal process, there is inadequate protection for the survivor (from continued abuse or threat of violence by the perpetrator) during the course of the legal proceedings. The failure on the part of state officials to protect the rights of SGBV survivors is due to a multitude of factors, including the lack of expertise or sensitivity on the issue; focus placed primarily on reconciliation and frequency of pending complaints withdrawn by survivors due to fear of increased abuse by the perpetrator.
The government has ignored the sustainability factor required for long-term implementation of policies and initiatives to combat SGBV. At present, funds allocated for this purpose come from the donor agencies (mostly international). For the most part, it has been the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) who have been taking the lead in implementing projects addressing SGBV in most parts of Kenya but with very few exceptions, the project usually terminates once the allocated donor funds have ended.
We cannot permit a culture that allows men and more so those in positions of leadership to get away with violation of human rights. It is unfortunate that women’s demand for protection of their rights is always met with dismissal, condescension and indifference Kenya delights itself on its recognition of and respect for human rights yet women and children continue to face violence including lack of state protection. The government must make the safety of women and children paramount and one of its key priorities in its development policy. We are calling upon the government to do more to protect women from Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV). We do not need to negotiate and that should never be compromised.
For effective prevention and response the following should be done:
- Government commitment for the expansion and empowerment of the national gender machinery to improve the protection and enforcement of women’s human rights under national and international law;
- Institutionalization of a systemic data-collection and qualitative analysis of incidence and cases of SGBV;
- Civil society organizations (CSOs), should mobilize and galvanize political support, and raise levels of public awareness for the implementation of key legislative and policy reforms;
- Establishment of the complaint, accountability, and enforcement mechanisms needed to protect and enforce women’s human rights;
- Awareness levels, preventive measures and access to services must be increased among women in marginalized social groups and ethnic minority communities;
- Both Government and CSOs should work together at all levels to combat SGBV with special attention to violence against women and children.
As Advocates For Social Change Kenya (ADSOCK), we do take cognisant of the fact that Sexual and Gender Based Violence encompasses all people and all structures in the society; social, economic, religious, cultural and political in causes, consequences and solutions. It is therefore imperative that measures and strategies to curb SGBV are multi-targeted and multi-faceted. It must include all and sundry in addressing the root causes of violence and respond to the debilitating effects. Advocacy strategies targeted at government and public institutions; health and assistance services for abused and those at risk of abuse; awareness creation to enhance rights literacy and independence particularly for women; and public communication to sensitise people and to facilitate behavioural change in the society at the individual, community and institutional levels must be heightened.
Time has come when we must have a paradigm shift and build peace between the genders in dialogue aimed at stopping SGBV. Government agencies including the police together civil society groups, community organisations, traditional and cultural leaders must be at the forefront in shunning these atrocities because the people who are victims of these crimes are also their subjects. The corporate bodies must also play as part of their social corporate responsibility, take part in efforts to eradicate all forms SGBV. Deterrent measures including harsh sentences should be meted out to the perpetrators of SGBV. We must do whatever is within our powers and abilities to guarantee safety of women and children and the vulnerable constituencies in our country.
Men must reconsider the language they use and how it reinforces harmful gender norms and as such they should care because it is the right thing to do. It is time for men to understand that violence can no longer be used as a means of getting respect and as a way of exercising their power and control over women and children. The clarion call to men is therefore for them to not only step out but also to speak out against all the ills meted on women and children since they remain preponderantly majority of perpetrators of all the forms of SGBV cases reported in Kenya.
Finally, the Government should develop its institutional capacity so as to competently implement its commitments to international human rights principles of equality and non-discrimination, while simultaneously fostering strategic partnerships with an empowered civil society willing and able to assert its international human rights. With concerted efforts from all spheres of the society, eradication of Sexual and Gender Based Violence in Kenya will not remain a mirage but rather a reality that its time has dawned.
