THE CHALLENGE

According to the World Bank, over the past decade, Kenya has made significant political, structural and economic reforms that have largely driven sustained economic growth, social development and political gains. However, Kenya’s key development challenges still include poverty, inequality, climate change and the vulnerability of the economy to internal and external shocks. More than 1 billion people in the world live in extreme poverty (defined as living on $2 or less per day) and many of them are women. Recent research suggests that while both men and women suffer the consequences of living in a cycle of poverty, women have fewer resources to deal with sustained, intergenerational extreme poverty.

Many women in Sub-Saharan Africa, like Kenya, are disproportionately affected by HIV. In 2016 alone, 34,000 adult women were infected with HIV, compared with 22,000 adult men. Adult women accounted for 910,000 of the country’s 1.6 million people living with HIV. According to UNAids, women also face sexual and reproductive health challenges such as limited access to family planning and stigma and discrimination when seeking services. Women and girls make up about 50.1% (Kisumu Population Data) of the total population of the slums of Kisumu City and the gross inequalities and inhuman conditions they endure in such areas both as a result of poverty and poor infrastructural development and in general is a key factor contributing to Kisumu city’s extremely poor human development index in the slum areas. The situation of women and girls in Kisumu slums is particularly dire and presents real concerns for prospects for fair treatment, access to justice, and overall human rights protection.