How next president can protect women more

Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Alliance running mate Martha Karua joins Kisii County Women candidates in a dance at Gusii Stadium on June 30, 2022. [Sammy Omingo, Standard]

As the election season heats up, deep-seated and ever-present apprehension related to violence against women and girls has once again reared its ugly head. This has been a concern in every election, and will continue to be so unless urgent and long-lasting interventions are sought.

Every election year, stakeholders and agencies have chronicled incidents where female candidates have either been sexually, physically or verbally assaulted by male rivals and/or their agents.

In 2007/8, officials estimated at least 900 cases of sexual violence occurred, with women being targeted on the basis of ethnicity.

In the run-up to the 2017 elections, female political aspirants faced harassment, intimidation, and abuse, in-person and online. Millie Odhiambo had her house burnt down and her bodyguard killed, Eunice Wambui was physically assaulted, and Esther Passaris ​​held hostage by a group of male students demanding money.

In March 2021, the WHO took the necessary step to describe violence against women as “devastatingly pervasive.” Why? One needs to look no further than the fact that, in the 21st century, one in three women globally is subjected to physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner or sexual violence from a non-partner.

Given the omnipresence of violence, and the role treaties play in driving change, it is clear that the current international framework meets neither women nor girls’ needs. This violence is at once an economic as well as a social disaster. Costs associated with this (reduced productivity, strained judicial, social service, education, and healthcare systems) equal 5.5 per cent of the global economy.  And herein lies the opportunity for the next Kenyan President.

Every Woman, a global coalition of more than 1,700 women’s rights advocates in 128 countries that I am a part of, is working with activists, civil society organisations, and UN member states to secure a treaty specific to eliminating violence against women and girls. Grounded in an analysis of the normative, geographic, and enforcement gaps in the existing international legal framework, Every Woman is drawing attention to the fact that, at the global level, there is no specific legally binding instrument on violence against women. Despite the existence of regional mechanisms, 75 per cent of the world’s women, primarily black and brown women, lack access to a treaty that specifically addresses violence against women.

Existing monitoring mechanisms do not adequately hold countries accountable for ending violence against women and girls and suffer from a lack of resources and inefficient systems. This contributes to high levels of impunity. The new treaty would mandate that governments implement a package of proven interventions, which will be monitored by a clear, metrics-based scorecard.

Every Woman’s initiative for a new treaty specific to violence against women has gained momentum in the last year. In his address to the UN General Assembly in September 2021,  Nigerian President Buhari called for collective global action through a treaty ; this was echoed again two months later in remarks by the then African Union Chairperson and DRC President Tshisekedi.

Recently, Organisation of American States Secretary General Luis Almagro and President Iván Duque Márquez of Colombia also issued a call for a new global treaty to end violence against women and girls. Together with similar calls from other regions, this bodes well for change. By joining the call for a global treaty on violence against women, Kenya’s stature as will continue to grow.