Kenya

Kenya, a sub-Saharan, East African country, has a total population of 39 million. Women make up roughly 49 percent of the population, with an average life expectancy of 49 years. The acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic affects life expectancy and infant mortality and lowers population growth. Women's equality is hindered by two key obstacles: poverty (50 percent of the Kenyan population lives below the poverty line) and traditionalism.

Women represent 75 percent of the agricultural workforce but make an average monthly income two-thirds less than men. Violence against women, including domestic violence between intimate partners, is a primary concern for many African-ethnic women. Traditional custom allows spousal discipline against women, and there is currently no law against spousal rape. There are also high rates of child rape and molestation, and girls younger than 14 years who are assaulted are not categorized as rape victims but, rather, labeled as “defiled.” In addition, female genital mutilation afflicts approximately 50 percent of Kenyan women.

Other traditions more prevalent in rural areas, increasing the discrimination against women living in these regions, include requirements such as requesting a husband's consent for national identification and passports. Women also cannot inherit land and live on family property only by the request and permission of her in-laws.

Seventy percent of the illiterate population in Kenya is composed of women. Even with free primary education, eliminating poverty as an obstacle, a girl's education is hindered by additional factors-girls often leave school to prepare family meals, a nationwide lack of sanitary pads means many school-age girls stay home when menstruating, and the schools are in need of more restrooms for the students.

Many girls cannot afford school uniforms or must wear secondhand uniforms, which is seen as a source of shame. Schools also permit bullying by boys-another circumstance that may keep a girl from attending-and when faced with a choice between sending a son or daughter to school, boys are favored over girls.

Other traditions mark a girl's exit from school, including female genital mutilation and adolescent marriage. Finally, family cases of human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) may require girls to stay home and care for their ailing parents or siblings, work to offset family debt and provide income for sustenance, or divert funds to medical bills resulting from the disease. Girls are shown to be three times more likely to contract HIV and are more often coerced into engaging in sexual intercourse with older men-often their teachers.

Kenyan Women in Politics

Transcript

• For Kenya’s nomadic herders who live in the country’s arid north-east, camels not only represent wealth – they’re also their most important source of food.
• We herders survive on camel milk. In our community, the first thing you ever drink as a child is camel milk. We also use it for cooking and preparing tea.
• Here in Garisa, the product is at the center of a vibrant trade. And apart from milking, which is traditionally done by men, the industry is 100% controlled by women. The town counts 1,500 women milk traders, most of them either widowed or divorced, like Sadia Hussan[?], a mother of two.
• I sell milk because it’s the only way I can care for my children, as I don’t have a husband to provide for us. I have to provide a home, food and education for them, and I’m able to do it all thanks to the milk trade.
• In nomadic societies, unmarried women are often considered second-class citizens, but at the market, they’re the ones responsible for the thousands of camel milk jerry cans that change hands every day.
• The demand is high because the whole milk – everyday day we normally get up to 7,000 liters of milk. At the end of the day, the evening, you cannot get every single – even a liter, you cannot get, at night, let’s say.
• These nomadic women might enter the milk trade by necessity to sustain themselves and their families after their husbands have gone, but in exchange they gain a new role as productive and even key members of their community.

Transcript

• Packing for the trip of a lifetime. In just a couple of days, Sarah and her teammates will leave the small town of Kilifi on the Kenyan coast to fly to Johannesburg for the World Cup, not to watch but to play in the tournament running alongside the main event – a competition called Football for Hope, which brings together football projects from around the world, which help disadvantaged youngsters.
• I’m happy because that is my first time to fly out of Kenya, and I’m glad to go there, so that I can learn more about football.
• Moving the Goalposts, or MTG, was set up eight years ago to help young girls and women in Kilifi and the surrounding areas fulfill their potential. They use football to bring the girls together, while encouraging them and, more importantly, their families that they should stay in school.
• I started playing football in 2004. I learned that gym and football help us when we have any problems.
• Like her teammates, Happy attends the local school. MTG is currently working with more than 3,000 young girls in the region, and organizes training sessions, matches and tournaments, which the girls run and referee themselves. Once training for the day is over, a youth leader talks to them about a range of subjects.
• As the girls come together and play football, they share what they face in their lives, what they face in their community, and also teach each other.
• Competition for a place in the team traveling to South Africa was intense. The selected girls had to go through three interviews, and be more than capable on the football pitch, because they know they’re not just going to make up the numbers, but to try to bring some football success to Africa.

Women are just starting to take a more prevalent role in politics, including at the university level. However, despite their ability to participate, women are still [Page 812]subjected to discrimination such as campaign posters being removed, intimidation, and physical abuse. At the higher levels of government, there are efforts under way to pass laws guaranteeing women a specific number of seats in Parliament. At last count, 13 of 210 Parliament seats were held by women-the highest number in Kenya's history.

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