By Vivian Wandera
Ambassador to Kenya and Somalia Mrs. Aline KUSTER-MENAGER has spoken about the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) and hailed it for the inclusivity it aims to achieve in terms of recognizing women and women’s rights.
Speaking at the French Embassy during the Human Rights Defenders awards ceremony in Nairobi, where Wilfred Olal and Social Justice enters Working Group won the award for the Human Rights Defender of the year, the ambassador raised concern on the rising cases of femicide in Kenya.
“Femicide is a real issue all over the world. The answer to this is having a committed justice system and having judges who are trained to listen to women and handle women’s issues. Women also need to be told it’s okay to come out when being abused and not suffer in silence. I noticed there is a big issue on this in Kenya that must be addressed and the justice system must come out strong protect and defend women.” she said.
Admitting that there are many issues when it comes to women’s rights, especially in Kenya, she condemned the Nairobi hospital board for lack of inclusivity and lack of female representation. She also hailed the Building Bridges Initiative for its effort to recognize and represent women in the country and those in leadership positions.
“Parity, equity and equal representation are some of the biggest problems we face in the world when it comes to women’s rights. Boys clubs exist all over the world even in my country and we must learn how to move forward and women have to take the leadership positions. We must be willing to include women in these leadership positions as there are many women who are doing great things. I believe Kenya is probably working on inclusivity, and even though the country has strong women who should be in leadership positions. it will take time.
The world of politics is the most difficult one for women to step in. the men always want to keep the big powerful positions to themselves. In France we have seen inclusivity only with president Macron. Rwanda may be first on this issue but Kenya may be better in other things. You have to change the whole society to make women more visible and teach men to evolve and give women to exist and as you can see in the BBI there was strong support for women in the parity issue and this is a sign of progress because it does not happen in all African countries.” Said the ambassador.
