Mombasa female aspirants speak out against sexual harassment
A group of female aspirants in Mombasa have accused their male colleagues of sexual harassment in exchange for party tickets ahead of the elections.
Speaking at a Mombasa hotel, Mariam Jumaa who is eyeing the Kipevu ward representative seat on the Jubilee party ticket urged other women seeking elective positions to reject any form of sexual harassment from their male counterparts ahead of party primaries on August 9.
“These cases are common and many women don’t come out publicly to express themselves, we are not ready to accept such sexual demands for us to get positions, women are not weak and should not be seen as weak characters, we will fight for our positions strongly,” she said.
This comes after the Association of Media Women in Kenya (AMWIK) in partnership with urgent Action Fund – Africa, Coalition on Violence Against Women raised alarm over increasing cases of delay and denial of justice for Gender Based Violence (GBV).
Speaking to The Informer, AMWIK Executive Director Judy Kaberia noted that civic education has already began to train women on the importance of reporting GBV cases.
“Our biggest challenge is reaching a wide range of people, we are currently using social media and sending out people to address small groups,” she said.
With the August general election coming up, organisations have warned of possible sexual violence against female candidates.
The Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) in collaboration with the International Federation of Human Rights released a new report urging the government to prevent such violence.
“The committee of investigation into the violence reported over 900 cases of sexual gender-based violence after the 2007-2008 post-election violence,” the study stated.
According to recent global estimates roughly one in every three women aged 15 and above has been subjected to physical or sexual abuse by an intimate partner or both at least once in their lives; nonetheless, GBV instances rose during the COVID-19 epidemic.
A multi-country rapid gender assessment undertaken by the UN Women in Kenya and the Government of Kenya on the impact of COVID-19 confirmed that cases of GBV increased as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
