The vicious cycle of violence against women and the way out for the 21 st century generation

Paper presented by: Dolphine Achieng Okech

Date: 27 TH November 2008

Venue : Kenyatta International Conference Center (KICC) Nairobi

Event: “WE CAN Alliance Campaign Launch”

Ladies, gentlemen and colleagues in development, I bring to you greetings from Nyanza province and more precisely from Kisumu the capital of the town roaring to become a city before the son of the soil Barack Obama the first black America 44 th president's home coming, because he will pass through Kisumu on his way to Kogello.

First of all I would like to thank the “we can alliance “ National Technical Committee for the many steps they have journeyed during the preparatory stages of the “we can “National Launch. Thank you for spending your quality time in making this day a success.

I would also like to appreciate the honour given to me by the National Technical Committee; this honour cannot be taken for granted. I have taken it with thanks and humility.

Fellow colleagues in development, ladies and gentlemen as we launch the “we can Alliance campaign, we have to focus on doing the “right things” and not doing things right as women.

The 21 st century generation of women and men must strive to be different from their predecessors. We cannot continue to go round in cycles repeating what we have talked about since the early 1980s with no promising change in the horizon.

My few minutes here are meant to propose strategies and realities which women must face in order to regain their lost dignity and ensure that the present generation of young girls and boys do not suffer the consequences of violence in families and in learning institutions, which many of us have suffered from.

In order to reverse the levels and types of violence targeted at women, the government will have to introduce the subject in the schools curriculum and institutions of higher learning courses.

Each ministry will have to integrate Gender Based Violence and VAW in their budgets and operations. The issue of violence against women is too big to be left to a few civil society organizations whose realistic role should only be that of complementing the government's work.

Violence Against Women (VAW) cannot be relegated to the ministry of gender, children and social development alone; VAW is a huge society issue which has to be the concern of the state in a sustainable way.

There should be mass education on the root causes and the conduits which sustain violence against women using the local and National radios with a view to reaching out to parents, guardians, teachers, religious leaders and other levels of leadership, charged with the responsibility of ensuring there is law and order at the lower units of government administration.

VAW issues cut across the development sectors, so there is need to integrate VAW in programme design and intervention by all civil society organizations because there is no sector which can claim that its work has nothing to do with VAW. I t is also a high time; men are seen to be genuinely advocating against VAW. Thanks to MEN FOR GENDER EQUALITY which has already set the pace.

It is my hope that more men led organizations will join the campaign against VAW. The issues on VAW for a long time have been left to women movements. This launch will not make any difference if we go back to business as usual.

The challenge for those of us who believe that violence is not acceptable and more so violence against women is that we should engage new styles which will win the support of all cadres of men in educating the public to restrain from living in the past where cultural perceptions are used to justify VAW.

Women should restrain themselves from being so passionate, so emotional and so personal for just a while and there after going back to their comfort zones.

We need to educate the public on VAW roots and the impact these roots have in the society first before we lobby them to join in the public advocacy against violence which target women.

We have to begin to do things differently in order that the foundation of sustainable change is laid, we have to be realistic and admit that advocacy alone will not eliminate violence, mass education will make a significant change of attitude and a step which will make women and men preach what they practice on issues of VAW.

When we talk about VAW it is important to have a personal understanding and be able to share the liberation strategies which some of us have used to get off the yoke of violence, otherwise we end up talking to ourselves in conferences, workshops and seminars without coming up with realistic strategies for reaching out to help our sisters who are violated everyday in order to help them recognize such violations and say not to violence.

At the same time we should engage our brothers who have been confused during their early childhood and who still use the cultural and traditional myths to perpetuate VAW, so that they get the correct information necessary for ending violence.

While all these steps are being taken, in my view I believe that girls should be equipped with life skills right from primary schools and trained on “martial art” in high schools and colleges for self-protection and defense. Boys should not be left out in this process because they are increasingly becoming targets for sex-based violence with sodomy on the increase.

It is disturbing to note that Nairobi women's hospital recently admitted a 105 year old granny who was raped by a 23year old boy. The other client recently is a one month old baby girl defiled by the father! These are worrying trends in Kenya . The hospital continues to receive male clients who have been sodomised and torn completely. New strategies for handling the sick minds in our society is of high priority , “we can campaign” is one way of addressing these social ills.

In conclusion I would like to share with you some of the miles stones we have covered in Nyanza province where KEFEADO is a focal NGO.

We have been able to use the spaces in KEFEADO programmes and those of our strategic partner WAFNET to consistently inform the province very precisely about the values of the campaign we are launching today. Between May 23 rd to date have managed to recruit these numbers of change makers. The numbers are spread out in various districts of Nyanza province.

Women: 238

Men: 227

Total: 465

Alliance organizations/groups

Thank you for listening all this time.