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From 29th to 31st May 2016, KAS in partnership with SIKOM - The Peace Network for Development, organized a workshop for 32 county stakeholders, CSO representatives and representatives of women groups and land right institutions from West Pokot County in Teacher’s Plaza in Kapenguria. The event was a follow-up activity on other trainings on land rights implemented by KAS in the year 2015 and sought to provide the former participants with a platform to reunite again to jointly deliberate on the specific issue of women’s land rights. With this workshop, KAS made an important contribution to providing an avenue to strengthen the women’s leadership skills by encouraging them champion for their rights not only for themselves but also for the benefit of all women in West Pokot. As key outcome of this workshop the participants developed a position paper that provides a way forward. It outlines actionable measures which an aim at strengthening the capacity of women on networking and communication skills as well as increasing the knowledge of women leaders on their land rights and on affirmative action to build advocacy capacity in their respective communities.

Agriculture and food production is the leading economic activity in Kenya with women making up to 80% of the country’s farmers according to the World Bank. This is also the case even for especially disadvantaged rural areas like West Pokot County. Nevertheless, Kenya still is a patriarchal society and many challenges related to women land rights have made it very difficult for women to independently make their activities financially gainful, for example in agricultural business. The situation is made even worse by under-representation of women in leadership and a high level of ignorance among the local population. One solution to this difficult situation is to strengthen the position of women in their communities and entrench their position in leadership through ensuring their equal access to rights, ownership and decision making which might result in greater holistic development in their communities in general.

In 2015 KAS has conducted a workshop on “The Role of Women in Politics”, in which women in West Pokot were empowered to take up leadership positions and confidently articulate relevant issues. The participants were drawn throughout civil society from West Pokot and comprised women in political leadership positions, leaders of women, youth and self help groups as well ascivil society, community and faith based organizations,. During this training in 2015, the participants received a profound understanding of the importance of political participation and gender equality as well as an overview of their political rights as women in West Pokot. A main challenge to be tackled as identified by the participants of this former workshop was the importance of cooperation between men and women in the fight against discriminatory practices and the promotion of marginalized groups and minorities.

As a follow-up on those outcomes specifically and in order to foster further improvements of the social situation in West Pokot in general, KAS implemented this training now in 2016. By engaging the same women leaders who participated in the previous workshop, the training ensured a continuous capacity building with multiplier and advocacy effect.

On the one hand, the workshop comprised several discussion points to follow-up on the outcome of last year’s activity, including the analysis of the effectiveness of the network groups that were formed in 2015 as well as of the progress of political participation of women in their respective communities since then. Moreover, the participants were also engaged in a discussion to identify the reasons for the rejection in parliament of the Chepkonga bill – a bill based on the petition that was submitted in the aftermath of last year’s KAS-activities with the aim to advocate a new law that protects the political interests of women. On the other hand, the training also focused on transmitting knowledge to the women leaders on various options to strengthen the position of women by leveraging existing institutional, legal, policy and regulatory frameworks to furthermore enhance their position in leadership and enforce their land and property rights. Moreover, the participants were encouraged to establish and reinforce existing networking groups (as partly founded during last years’ activity), which focus on championing for their land-rights to enable women to improve their economic status and execute their land rights.

By the end of the workshop, the participants created a position paper to summarize the next steps that also include the need to increase public awareness on the issue of land rights also regarding the specific role of women. A first step in the direction of increasing the visibility has already been taken, since journalists of the local radio station Kalya FM also attended and broadcasted their report on the event throughout six Sub-Counties. Thus, the main issue of this KAS-workshop, the discussions of the participants and the position paper as output of the event have been brought to the attention of a broader public.

About Sikom

The SIKOM Peace Network for Development seeks to redress to the problems afflicting the pastoralists’ communities in West Pokot County and the neighboring districts. One of the key problems afflicting these pastoralists communities has been conflict particularly cattle rustling between Pokot, Karamojong, Sabiny and Turkana communities (the so called POKATUSA communities). SIKOM is then formed to guide these communities resolve their conflicts and spur sustainable development in the region. This development has made the communities lag behind in the spheres of socio-economic and political fields, lack of knowledge know-how on good governance and resource management. With the above programme, SIKOM see the community will desire and demand good governance and accountability from the responsible County Government management.