Kenya joined the rest of the world to mark the World's International Women's Day on Friday, March 8. This day is special as it commemorates the women in our society and appreciate them in a peculiar way.
Women play an integral role in the society’s day-to-day activities, acting as homemakers, not forgetting the managers they are, naturally.
Women have proven naysayers wrong by excelling in what was previously perceived as male-dominated fields such as politics, medicine, science and engineering, and law, among many others.
With that in mind, it pains when one has to watch various women in our society having to persevere with gender based violence, walking out with punched faces while some, in unfortunate cases, go back home wrapped in body bags.
Just recently, a woman in Matayos was left critically injured after taking a beating from her husband in collaboration with an alleged mistress, leaving the lady with a roughed-up face.
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| |Metrine Okumu (left) was assaulted by the husband on Saturday, March 9 | Photo | Courtesy |
According to statistics from the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS), "over 40 per cent of women have experienced physical or sexual intimate partner violence in their lifetime"
Some of these cases of gender based violence are what escalate to instances of femicide.
A man identified as Boniface Okuon stoned his wife to death in Elgeiyo Marakwet after they had an altercation following suspicion of misappropriation of funds meant for business.
“The shocking reality that at least 10 women have been killed in the first month of 2024 alone intensifies an already troubling trend”, said Mary Njeri, a gender-based violence analyst at UN Women. “Each loss is a stark indicator of the systemic issues we are striving to dismantle.”
A 2018 analysis of prevalence data from 2000-2018 across 161 countries and areas, conducted by WHO on behalf of the UN Interagency working group on violence against women, found that worldwide, nearly 1 in 3, or 30%, of women have been subjected to physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner or non-partner sexual violence or both
|©World Health Organization|
Kenya is among African nations at the forefront of fighting for equal rights and opportunities for the female gender, and such happenings tend to stain these efforts. President William Ruto’s remarks about women in politics say it all.
We should focus more on empowering women to enable them to actualise their potential in various fields.
The government should also come up with legislation that ensures the suppression of gender based violence in the country. President William Ruto’s remarks about the two-third gender Bill, which had stalled for many years in parliament since the conceptualisation of the August 2010 constitution, makes me optimistic.
Ruto promised to make a deliberate action to see that gender equality is achieved in all spheres of governance in Kenya.
"I ask us as a nation to recognise the participation of women. We all came from the womb of a mother, however opinionated or prejudiced we could be. That should give us the courage and inspiration to support women in Kenya,” he stated.
This year's International Women's Day's theme was Invest in women: Accelerate progress. And what a way to make it more special than empowering women to achieving greater heights.
Let's eradicate gender based violence in society to ensure that we foster an environment suitable for equal opportunities to all.
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