Activists call for child-friendly GBV justice system
Association of Media Women in Kenya Executive Director Judie Kaberia.
What you need to know:
- Association of Media Women in Kenya executive director Judie Kaberia says many gender-based violence cases go unreported because of fear and mistrust, despite the victims needing help.
- International Association of Women Judges–Kenya vice secretary Hellen Onkwani said the language used in courts on sexual offences is traumatising to children.
Access to justice for crimes of sexual violence should be child-friendly, women rights advocates have said.
Speaking on Tuesday during a live talk show on NTV, the advocates said broken justice systems and unfriendly court language often frustrate child victims’ access to justice.
“The [justice] system is so broken that the victim suffers more than the perpetrator,” said Association of Media Women in Kenya executive director Judie Kaberia.
Fear and mistrust
She said many gender-based violence (GBV) cases go unreported because of fear and mistrust, despite the victims needing help.
“We need to focus on prevention…the numbers are just too high,” she said.
In this regard, she called on the media to be on the frontline of leading preventive campaigns through regular highlights on the damage and consequences of GBV.
She also advocated sexuality education in schools to sensitise the learners to preventing and protecting themselves against the violations.
Ms Kaberia termed it crucial for the government to invest in safe houses to protect victims from further harm and safeguard evidence.
Traumatising language
International Association of Women Judges–Kenya vice secretary Hellen Onkwani said the language used in courts on sexual offences is traumatising to children.
She said it is time the country reviewed the laws and procedures on sexual offences to make them child-friendly.
Coalition on Violence Against Women executive director Wairimu Munyinyi-Wahome, for her part, advocated early sensitisation to GBV, noting that this would result in prevention of at least 70 per cent of the cases.
She said a cultural change is pivotal to ending GBV.
“It doesn’t help much to talk about GBV to a police officer who grew up in a homestead where GBV was permissible. Their training also uses force,” she said.
She was concerned that GBV had yet to be recognised as a development issue that derails socioeconomic growth.
“As a country, we haven’t yet realised the implication of GBV in our entire development… (such that) we do not factor it in the cost of health…education system.
“If we recognised it as an issue, then we would have resources (to tackle it),” she said.
