Lack of women economic empowerment has contributed to increased cases of Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) in Makueni County.
The Executive Director of Mobilization Agency for Paralegal Communities in Africa (MAPACA) Joyce Mulu has said poverty is a great risk factor that leads to inequality, thus subjecting women to intimate partner violence, while at the same time making it difficult for them to leave such abusive marriages.
“Poverty can create sexual exploitation, given that women and girls are exploited in exchange for goods and services.
There are also situations, where children are subjected to SGBV from extended families as well as friends of the family in instances where parents are unable to provide care and protection for them, since they struggle to generate an income,” said Mulu in a meeting on Women Economic Empowerment (WEE) at a Hotel in Wote town.
The Executive Director disclosed that the department of education in the county reported 650 cases of girls who had been impregnated, where 373 were able to return to school, though 227 were unaccounted for.
Other challenges that women face include harmful cultural practices, revolving around land ownership that has impacted the ability of women to access and control land, owing to the patriarchal nature of members of the Kamba community.
Mulu further disclosed that men in the area hold exclusive rights to household and community resources and control of power in decision-making.
“Land and livestock, which are the most critical resource in agro-pastoral economy are owned and controlled by men and inherited along their lineage. Therefore, unmarried women cannot inherit any land and many single mothers are forced to live as squatters on their parent’s land,” she said.
Also women have low financial literacy levels besides lacking skills in budgeting, savings, managing debts, investing and managing credit as they are unable to use the monies they receive from different government funds adequately.
Mulu also said that climate change mostly affects women, since most of them are subsistence farmers who usually suffer untold miseries when the rains fail, resulting into poor crop production, which impacts negatively on food security.
“Most women who are subsistence farmers, depend on unreliable rainfall which impacts on food security, forcing them to develop other innovative ways to sustain their agricultural activities,” said the Executive Director.
While saying that the challenges were derived from a survey they carried out previously jointly with Equality Now, they also identified problems of lack of market and corruption, besides women doing unpaid work for the function of the community.
On interventions, Mulu said it was imperative for those managing county and national funds to reduce corruption and mismanagement, create spaces for women to take part in making decisions, even as the county government continues mainstreaming policies to secure women entry into key programs.
She further said steps should be taken to build skills of women in financial management, savings, credit and businesses in order to enable them know where to invest and utilize funds on the intended projects.
Speaking in the same meeting, Makueni County Director of Gender Douglas Mukanda said the Ministry of Gender, the Arts Culture and Heritage through the State Department for Gender has programs for empowering women through National Government Affirmative Action Fund (NGAAF), where they are funding groups and also providing sanitary towels to girls in all primary schools and Junior secondary schools in the country.
“Women are taught business and entrepreneur skills before the funds are disbursed. Even youth groups benefit,” said Mukanda.
Others present during the meeting included departmental heads from the county administration as well as the national government.
By Patrick Nyakundi
