The fight against Gender-Based Violence (GBV) among athletes in Kenya has received a major boost following the appointment of an Organising Committee and Secretariat for Gender Protection and Implementation Committee.
But the committee has its work cut out for it, given that at least four female athletes have been killed in Kenya in the past three years.
In a Kenya Gazette notice dated November 22, 2024, Sports Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen announced the formation of a seven-member organising committee comprising former athletes and experts to lead the initiative.
Murkomen, and Sports Principal Secretary Peter Tum will sit on the Advisory Board.
Kenya’s distance running legend, Catherine Ndereba, Harambee Starlets player Essie Akida, Prof Paul Ochieng, Barbra Malowa, Benjamin Wafula, Elizabeth Wangeci Gichuki, and Joyce Kebenei are the members of the committee.
Diana Watila is the chief executive officer of the Secretariat, while Catherine Njeri Maina, Lorna Tanui, Fardhosa Hassan Boru, and Patricia Arisi will serve as members. Members of the committee will serve for three years.
According to the Kenya Gazette notice, the primary objective of the committee and the secretariat is to ensure full implementation of the report on gender welfare and equity in sports submitted by the taskforce on Gender Welfare in Sports on January 19, 2022.
The taskforce on Gender Welfare in Sports, chaired by Ndereba, was established by the Ministry of Sports in July 2021 following a spike in cases of GBV among athletes.
In their report dubbed ‘Levelling the Playing Field: Gender Inclusivity in Sports’, the taskforce established that sexual abuse in Kenya’s sports industry has been normalised to an extent that young victims cannot flag it up.
The report revealed that although 15 per cent of the sportswomen interviewed suffered sexual abuse, 43 per cent of them preferred to suffer in silence.
The report said coaches, teammates, and officials were the main perpetrators of the sexual, physical, and emotional abuse among athletes.
To end the vice, the taskforce recommended a coordinated multi-sectoral response involving the Office of the Public Prosecutions, ministries of Sports, Interior and National Coordination, Labour, Education, Gender, and ICT, among other stakeholders.
The committee has its work cut out for it, given the prevalence of gender-based violence among female athletes in Kenya.
On September 5, Ugandan marathoner Rebecca Cheptegei died at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret where she had been rushed for treatment after her boyfriended doused her in petrol. She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed in Kenya in the past three years.
The others are award-winning runner Agnes Tirop who was stabbed to death by her boyfriend in 2021, Edith Kimani who was murdered at her house in Nyeri in 2021, and Kenyan-born Bahraini who was found strangled in her house in Iten in 2022.
Other key functions of the new committee and secretariat are; to facilitate development and implementation as well as review of gender and GBV policies, develop a framework for a multi-agency approach in dealing with GBV in sports and sports organizations, advocate for gender mainstreaming in sports and sports organisations and to participate in and/or facilitate institutional gender analysis and gender audits.
The rest of their duties are; to provide a safe environment for sports personnel in their participation in sports activities, assess the progress of gender-related initiatives and evaluate their effectiveness over time, organise workshops, training sessions, or awareness campaigns, educate members of the organisation about gender-related issues and unconscious bias, and to ensure the existence of an elaborate and institutionalised gender mainstreaming implementation structure.
The committee will also coordinate reporting on the status of gender equality to relevant structures on behalf of the institution, and will regularly review the progress of planned gender mainstreaming interventions within the sports sector.
It will also receive and disseminate feedback on gender mainstreaming on behalf of the institution and action as appropriate.
