April 22, 2022 — In 95, the world adopted the Beijing Declaration- the most comprehensive policy to end discrimination against girls and women. But 25 years later, issues such as gender based violence, access to education and lack of rights to own property are rife in pastoralist communities in North Kenya.
It is sad to note that pastoral communities have one of the highest child marriage prevalence rates. The fact that there is no minimum age provided in their cultural traditions allows wealthy older men to exploit the grey area to settle down with children as young as 12. If the trend continues, it will promote acts of gender based violence, slump in educational standards, dim the social-economic outlook for the general population and stifle economic progress. Child marriages violate girl’s rights to life free from violence and bring complications during child delivery because their bodies are not fully developed.
These are the conditions that well describe the situation of the pastoral communities of Samburu County where one Rebecca Lolosoli is working around the clock to reverse the trend through her Umoja(Peace) Women’s Village. A unique village a few minutes walk from Archers Post Trading center in Samburu county.
This women’s only village provides shelter, refuge and hope to abused girls and women from villages far afield who have escaped from forced marriages, disowned by their families for refusing to participate in traditional rights of passage such as Female Genital Mutilation and in extreme cases rape.
Umoja village offers a kibbutz style lifestyle for the members who enjoy autonomy from the patriarchal society that Samburu is thereby taking charge of their lives and able to make decisions concerning their life destinies from education, entrepreneurship to their marital preferences. Here they are able to dress, feed, work and socialize with less interference from the men who live in the nearby villages.
A quick survey would reveal a big difference in living standards between the women in Umoja and those from surrounding villages who have to endure forced marriages, FGM, limited educational and economic opportunities. Women at Umoja engage in income generating activities to earn a living and sell most of their products to tourists who pass by as they head to various game lodges and wildlife reserves that dot the region’s landscape. They also have an advantage of being able to sharpen their literacy and numeracy skills at the school within their compound. Opportunities that women from the region can only dream of.
Lolosoli through her Umoja women has shown exemplary leadership qualities that have grown the initiative’s membership from strength to strength. Her charm offensive when it comes to articulating women’s issues is yielding fruits and her remarkable efforts in providing environment and a setting that impacts lives with deep social values that impacts generations has seen her bag several coveted women’s rights awards in recognition of her struggle to stand for the rights of the pastoralist women.
Lolosoli continues to facilitate skills training in order to improve employability and opportunities for decent livelihoods and is struggling for the emancipation of women, the achievement of full equality between sexes, and most importantly working on reducing cases of child marriage.” The denial of such equality perpetuates an injustice against one half of the world’s population and promotes in men harmful attitudes and habits that are carried from the family and replicated at the workplace, political life and socio-economic spheres”. She concludes.
