16 Days of Activism on Gender Based Violence in a Rural Context

Majority of people in the African continent live in rural areas. For example, according to World Bank, in 2020, 72% of Kenyans lived in rural areas[1] whereas in Uganda the figure stands at 75.05%. In rural areas, women form the bulk of the population. Many African rural communities suffer from various forms of marginalisation. From poor roads, challenged healthcare system, lack of job opportunities and limited cash flows. Many people in rural areas depend on their urban relatives’ cash remittances to provide support for basic necessities such as education (fees for siblings and other relatives) and sometimes medical care.

However, despite their key role in productive and reproductive spheres of life, women in rural areas face gender discrimination and a host of social, legal and cultural constraints. First, they have more limited access than men to land, productive and financial resources, education, health care, rural extension, markets, climate adaptation initiatives and employment opportunities. Women are also subjected to social exclusion from decision‐making and labor markets, as well as to sexual exploitation, domestic violence and reduced food intake (SOFI 2019).

Climate change as has been experienced in northern Kenya region resulting into death of livestock has negatively impacted women because they are the majority of food producers within the household and the community. Climate crisis means women travel long distances in search of water and food and this may have implications for gender based violence. Dialogues with women both Kenya’s urban settings and rural areas confirm that indeed women continue to suffer within the household and community at large. Voices from Baringo county- an indigenous people and pastoralist community say that when  a wife gives birth , the husband does not care how the children will survive , the husband can decide to leave the household and go  marry another woman. Household poverty lures girls into transactional sex and early pregnancy[2].It is not uncommon to hear of girls who have been impregnated by boda boda[3] riders because the girls’ parents did not have money for the transport to school. In Kilifi County –a coastal region of Kenya, teenage pregnancy[4] rates  is  a challenge for parents who also still grapple with high levels of poverty.

Reflecting on 16 Days of Activism on Gender Based Violence, there is a marked increase in cases of gender based violence especially with the onset of Covid 19. With school closure, more girls got abused sexually and physically. The stresses brought about by job losses also affected families with women being the majority of those abused within households. Women became punching bugs because of job losses. The fact that perpetrators had to live under the same roof with their victims has also escalated the crisis. Mental health and coping mechanisms have been shattered as communities are grappling with a virus that they hardly understand.

In rural areas , culture plays a more active role than an urban context. Women living in rural areas are subjected to more negative cultural practices .Take for example Female Genital Mutilation , is mainly done in rural context and in some cases women and girls die of haemorrhage or end up having fistula. The councils of elders in some communities also contribute to rights violation especially on women and girls. Take for example the Maslaha where community based conflicts are resolved. This conflict resolution mechanism has been very popular among the Somalis in solving cases of theft, murder, sexual offences like Gender-Based Violence and internal family conflicts[5].Women are girls have been denied justice because  a group of elders sat under a tree and decided on a case of sexual violence .Who empathises with the scars of the abused person in such a case?. These retrogressive cultures still continue despite the fact that for example the case of Kenya , the law is very clear that sex related offences cannot be settled by a council of elders.

Because of high rates of females depending on males economically, many women are unable to leave abusive relationships. Majority tend to sympathise with the abuser, while other women minds about what society will say if they leave their marriage or abusive relationships and still there are scores of women who get abused but stay on for the sake of their children. Furthermore , the lack of mental health and other forms of psychosocial support mechanisms within rural setting  affects women .Many women thus vent their frustrations on their children , more so the girl child.

In rural areas, women are subjected to economic and sexual violence. Many women are yet to recognise that rape within marriage is an offence for example in the Kenyan context. Women continue to be subjected to overwork, especially farming communities. Additionally, in situations of conflict, women tend to be the ones who suffer the most as they have to ensure the safety and security of their children. Women who have fled from their homes and living in Internally Displaces Persons(IDP) camps do not have access to basic necessities such as food, water and many a times their children’s education is totally disrupted.

Within rural households, girls get withdrawn from school to be employed as domestic helps. Many get overworked within households, punished and are vulnerable to sexual abuse. In many households, mothers share that their sons continue to secondary school while girls are forced into various economic activities to supplement the family’s meagre incomes. Employed young, many girls and women suffer from low wages because they lack employable skills as well as bargaining power. Furthermore, they have family members at home who depend on these meagre incomes for survival. This in actual sense, enhances the cycle of poverty within the household and the community. Those subjected to human trafficking are also mostly withdrawn from rural[6] areas because of more awareness within cities and towns, making rural children and youth more vulnerable.

Majority of GBV support mechanisms are often flooded in urban areas, sadly, any women and girls in rural settings are suffering from violence, they lack safe spaces to share what they are going through. The culture of silence also deters women and girls from reporting cases of abuse .The fear of what society will say when cases of abuse are reported also contributes to impunity. There is need for provision of more support to rural communities in terms of addressing Gender Based Violence because in Africa, this is where the bulk of women and girls are to be found and this is where the levels of ignorance and normalisation of abuse thrives and where the ugly head of patriarchy is deeply rooted.

References 

[1] https://tradingeconomics.com/kenya/rural-population-percent-of-total-pop...(%25%20of%20total,compile

[2] https://www.kenyanews.go.ke/baringo-woman-rep-urges-parents-to-give-seco...

[3] boda boda is a motorcycle  , commonly used as public transport in Africa

[4] https://www.faithtoactionetwork.org/resources/pdf/Kenya-Kilifi%20County%...

[5] https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/opinion/article/2001379848/the-misuse-of...

[6] https://allafrica.com/stories/202012180047.html