The Urban Grassroots Women Caucus has called for inclusion of women, youth and people living with disabilities in steering the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) process.
The caucus Coordinator Caroline Ogot said whereas the BBI contained many gains for women, they have been excluded from the table where critical decisions are being made.
“We feel concerned with the recent developments in the formation of structures that are to take the BBI process forward,” she said.
The Steering Technical Committee, she said, was being led by two male Co- Chairs and none of them was representative of the Youth or Persons Living with Disabilities.
The same, she said, has been reflected in the regional structures citing the Nyanza region where two men have been picked to spearhead the process.
“As women champions, we are wondering at what point exactly are these groups going to get representation if right from the onset they seem to be deliberately left out,” she said.
Addressing the media in Kisumu on Tuesday, Ogot appealed to President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga to urgently expand the various teams at national and regional levels to include women as chairs and co-chairs.
The women, she added, were fully supporting the document since it contained many gains for them adding that it was necessary to have them represented at the negotiating table.
BBI, she said was the only way to correct the social injustices Kenyan women have endured over the years as they sought to participate in governance and decision making.
“This therefore, cannot be the time when women are again relegated to the back seat in a process that is fundamentally about them and their inclusion and that of other marginalized groups. There cannot be anything for us without us,” she said.
By Chris Mahandara
