Let Marsabit women sit in Council of Elders meetings

Access to justice and administration for most women and girls in Marsabit County remains elusive.

Stakeholders attribute the situation to the deficiencies in the legal and political framework through which gender-based violence (GBV) cases are addressed.

Saku Accountability Forum (SAF) Executive Director James Forole, said lack of awareness of rights, available remedies for violations and avenues for redress have led to the situation.

Mr Forole spoke to the Nation.africa after a meeting that brought together paralegals and other county justice stakeholders in a bid to promote access to justice for poor, marginalised and vulnerable women and girls through a project dubbed #HakiMashinani Project.

 “The biggest challenge we face is that the formal justice system is regarded as alien by our local communities,” he said.

Systematic impunity

This has resulted in systematic impunity in the judicial prosecution of and proceedings on SGBV cases. Most of the cases are never effectively investigated and punished or proper redress provided for the victims.

Low awareness of court procedures, dragging cases, inadequate time for victims to participate in the proceedings and systemic corruption resulting in unjust outcomes, leave victims dissatisfied with the outcomes.

Mr Forole pointed out that fear of reprisals from the adversary’s family and the community at large, has led to most victims choosing to suffer in silence rather than report their cases to legal courts, which are deemed as the enemy of the community.

Marsabit County Civic Education and Public Participation Department Director Orge Baji also established that violence and discrimination against women were still acceptable practices among majority of the communities in the region.

She singled out structural problems within the justice system that have adverse consequences on the prosecution of cases involving violence against women. 

The tendency is to regard cases of GBV as domestic disputes that are better settled without the State’s intervention.

Kangaroo court

Most pastoral communities consider rape, defilement and domestic violence cases as confidential and taboo and must be discussed out of the community circles.

In case a woman’s or girl’s rights have been violated, the case is presented before an indigenous justice system (Kangaroo court) where only male relatives or husbands are allowed to represent the victims.

The pervasiveness of poverty among women, up to 62 per cent in the county, has also aggravated the situation.

Ms Baji observed that within such indigenous justice system there are irregularities and deficiencies in the investigation, prosecution, trial and punishment of cases involving violence against women, and in the conduct of judicial officials (Council of Elders). Such barriers deter women from filing complaints in cases involving acts of violence.

She added that due to the fear of reprisal or retribution from the adversaries, many victims choose to suffer in silence even under gross violation of their human rights.

“It’s important for all communities in Marsabit County to let women sit in the Council of Elders meetings to ensure their views are represented in the administration of justice,” Ms Baji said.

The stakeholders recommended that the government bridge the existing gaps between the indigenous and formal justice systems through sensitisation and training of the informal judicial officers on how to dispense human right-based justice.

They also suggested that the government carry out a broad-based awareness of the Justice Delivery Act 2016 on the legal and provisions to the poor and the vulnerable in the society, even as they called on the Judiciary to establish more courts in Marsabit County.