Structural gender-based violence: A case study from Nairobi

One of my previous blogs explored gender based violence and briefly touched upon a report by Amnesty International from a slum in Nairobi. This blog will look closer at the report and discuss some wider structural reasons why violence is so persistent in the slum, and how this affects development. 

The wider view

Violence against women occurs as a result of wider systemic issues that continue to disadvantage and disempower women in their lives. For women in the Nairobi slum, violence is endemic and keeps women impoverished and underdeveloped. Rates of violence are likely to be higher with women of low income. The violence women face in the slum is directly linked to their everyday routines, in particular access to sanitation. This results in feelings of insecurity and indignity haunting the everyday tasks of women. The study stated that all women interviewed experienced some sort of gender based violence in the slum. Proposed solutions to improve sanitation services often do not take into account the full needs and safety of women and girls that live in these settlements.  

Street in Kibera slum in Nairobi

Governance, water and urban planning

Water and sanitation services are therefore a hotspot for violence against women. This links to the wider governmental failures that have continued to neglect public safety within informal settlements. The informal settlements have been neglected by the government and therefore the provision of public services such as sanitation or policing is poor. The Nairobi sanitation provider (Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company) states that sanitation is the responsibility of household and structure owners and not theirs. A lack of regulations for structure owners means that they often neglect their facilities, thus affecting their safety and accessibility. This has a domino effect on the safety and dignity of women. 

Furthermore, the settlements often fall out of the jurisdiction of official urban planning so sanitation infrastructures are not connected to the settlements. This absence of legal and governmental supervision results in private landlords providing structures that do not comply to appropriate sanitation requirements. Yet Kenya, like other countries, strive to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals of gender equality but this simple lack of regulation will make it extremely difficult to achieve, affecting the empowerment of women. This results in existing latrines or toilets to be unsafe, overcrowded and restrictive. For women, this affects how, when and where to access sanitation services. Non-enforcement of sanitation standards forces women to use other services, often far and sometimes at night, where they are more vulnerable to experience violence.

A lack of safety net also affects how women cope with violence. Women face a myriad of obstacles in dealing with sexual violence and seeking justice including ignorance, low percentages of reporting due to fear and norms, difficulties in accessing court systems and a lack of safe places for victims. Violence in the home is rarely even considered violence, and a lack of legal frameworks that condones domestic violence, makes it difficult for women to ensure legal redress. The frail nature of the justice system, can sometimes result in abuses from security officials like the police. Women cannot feel secure if the same people sworn to protect them, are the ones committing the violence. All this has an incredibly destructive effect on the development of women. 

Concluding thoughts

This discussion is primarily focused on how the lack of systemic regulations exacerbate the risk of women to violence. In turn, this affects their everyday life, impacting not only their feelings of insecurity and indignity, but their willingness to better their economic and social situations. GBV is a violation of human rights, and the lack of appropriate responses from the state, amounts to complicity. This not only threatens individual women and girls but also the wider economic and development agenda of countries and governments.