[Photo: White Ribbon Alliance Kenya]
The Kajiado county government is to blame for the slow economic empowerment of women and girls following delays by the devolved unit to gazette a crucial bill.
This emerged in a report by a lobby that claims the bill, aimed at increasing the budget allocations to support gender equality and to give women and girls better economic opportunities, has been stuck at the gazettement stage after being signed into law.
According to the White Ribbon Alliance Kenya, the policy was converted to a bill and passed by the Kajiado County Assembly late 2023, but has not been gazetted.
The Women Economic Empowerment policy serves as a positive contribution in elevating the status of women in any economic space. In a survey conducted by the lobby, a large chunk of the women from the county cited lack of capital and resources to better their living standards.
They also cited insufficient knowledge or business skills and low levels of formal education to run their own businesses.
”I need financial support in order to achieve my dream,” a twenty years old respondent from the survey said.
Kajiado county faces periodically devastating drought and flooding seasons which leaves mostly women and girls to bear the most brunt hence the need to have the policy enacted.
The policy also envisages Kajiado county locals with the ability to bounce back to financial stability through financial management skills.
In March 2024 The County Executive Committee Member (CECM )for Gender, Culture, Cooperatives, Tourism and Wildlife, Janet Sereu, said the county assembly passed the Women Economic Fund that would economically empower women, to embrace activities such as modern farming, especially during drought seasons.
“We have been championing for the formation of cooperatives in the rural areas of Kajiado. After a long drought, most communities were affected and poverty became rampant so we are partnering with gender sector working groups and partners of cooperatives such as the German Kenyan Cooperative, the Canadian Cooperative Development to teach our people alternative ways of livelihood,” said Sereu.
In the Report of a Listening Exercise, What Women Want, the survey found that women needed to be empowered so they can access medical care, transport and food for their families.
According to them, economic activities such as poultry keeping, beadmaking, milk business and other farming opportunities will spur their economic growth.
The bill was drafted in 2021 during the first term of the governor Ole Lenku but has since lacked the goodwill by the political class to be realized further deepening the economic challenges faced by the communities therein.