On this International Women's Day, we celebrate the work of women everywhere and take stock of how far we need to go to achieve gender equality.
In Kenya and around the world, women and girls must have access to the healthcare they need to live with dignity, free from discrimination and systemic barriers that undermine their well-being.
Healthcare for women and girls is a fundamental human right, not a privilege.
What this means is that Kenya must ensure access to healthcare for all women and girls, including survivors of sexual and gender-based violence.
Unfortunately, this right remains elusive. The barriers to healthcare are even steeper for survivors of sexual violence, such as those who endured the 2007-2008 post-election violence and petitioners in High Court Petition 122 of 2013.
For example, one survivor suffered sexual violence leaving her with the lifelong burden of HIV, compounded by societal stigma and loss of livelihood.
With no stable source of income and no support, she struggles to access HIV treatment and education for her children, creating a cycle of hardship.
Or consider another survivor-petitioner who was violently assaulted by a group of looters who not only robbed her of all her possessions but also left her with a permanent injury to her hip.
This injury continues to require monthly treatments, complicated further by the disruptions in healthcare access.
She is among four petitioners whose cases were linked to violence perpetrated by non-state actors.
Despite her ordeal, she is not entitled to compensation because the perpetrators were not state actors. Petition 122, filed in 2013 by a group of Kenyan human rights organisations and eight survivors, sought to hold the government accountable for its failure to prevent and respond to sexual violence during the post-election period.
The High Court correctly recognised that four of the survivors, whose attackers were state actors, were awarded compensation of Sh4 million each in 2020 for the preventable harm they suffered.
However, despite this landmark decision, some five years later, the compensation has still yet to be paid. These delays further impede justice and healing for the survivors.
Meanwhile, survivor-petitioners whose attackers were civilians—including the survivor with the permanent hip injury—were denied relief.
This highlights clear gaps in how violence is addressed regardless of the identity of the perpetrators. Despite these setbacks, these survivors courageously continue to seek justice.
On this International Women’s Day, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) urges the government to take immediate and concrete steps to uphold its human rights obligations.
This includes ensuring timely access to healthcare, holding perpetrators of sexual violence accountable, and providing survivors with the necessary support to heal and live with dignity.
Additionally, Kenya must dismantle systemic barriers to justice for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and implement comprehensive measures to prevent future violence, ensuring that all women and girls can fully exercise their rights, free from discrimination.
We reiterate that the government has a fundamental duty to uphold the rule of law, which includes enforcing court decisions and ensuring justice for all.
No survivor should have to mark another International Women’s Day without receiving the redress that the courts have affirmed as their right.
Dorcas Gitonga is a program officer at Physicians for Human Rights, and Danielle Musumba is a program intern at Physicians for Human Rights
