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Every year, the world's largest gathering on gender equality convenes at United Nations Headquarters in New York. This year, the 70th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70 ) brought together governments, civil society, UN agencies, and grassroots movements from across the globe from 9 to 19 March 2026 to address one of the most urgent questions of our time: how do we ensure that justice for women and girls is not just promised, but delivered?
The priority theme of CSW70 was: "Ensuring and strengthening access to justice for all women and girls, including by promoting inclusive and equitable legal systems, eliminating discriminatory laws, policies and practices, and addressing structural barriers."
For GROOTS Kenya, a national movement of over 5,000 grassroots women-led community organizations, this theme wasn't abstract. It was the daily lived reality of the women we walk alongside. And so we showed up. Not as spectators, but as speakers. Not just to observe the conversation, but to shape it.
Here is how GROOTS Kenya showed up at CSW70.
GROOTS Kenya participated in four speaking engagements across in-person and online side events at CSW70, represented by our Executive Director, our Programs Manager, and two Grassroots Champions for Transformative Development whose voices carried the weight of thousands of community women who could not be in that room.
Tuesday, 17 March 2026
At a UN Women-hosted side event titled "Centering Women's Voices: Citizen Data for Protection and Justice," our Executive Director, Eunice Mwangi, took to the floor to speak on one of the most powerful and most overlooked tools in the fight for gender justice: citizen-generated data.
[UN Women Side Event | Speaker: Eunice Mwangi, Executive Director]
Despite decades of global commitments to gender equality, significant gender data gaps persist. When women's realities are not reflected in official data, they remain invisible in the budgets, policies, and legal systems that are supposed to serve them. Citizen data collected, owned, and used by communities themselves is how grassroots women are closing that gap.
Eunice spoke directly to the realities of land rights in Kenya, where land is classified under the 2010 Constitution into three categories: public, private, and community land. For grassroots women, each of these categories carries a distinct burden:
Her central message was clear: when women collect data, they expose injustice and demand accountability. At GROOTS Kenya, we are working alongside grassroots women to turn lived realities into evidence and that evidence into advocacy that influences policy, strengthens accountability and advances justice.
[UN Women Side Event | Speaker: Eunice Mwangi, Executive Director]
Eunice also spoke at a UN Women side event reflecting on ten years of the Women Count Programme a global initiative that has transformed how gender data is produced and used. Since its launch in 2016, the Women Count programme has been driving a shift in how gender statistics are prioritized and applied to advance meaningful change in the lives of women and girls, backed by over USD 80 million in investment.
Representing GROOTS Kenya, Eunice spoke to a persistent truth: for too long, grassroots women have contributed immensely to local economies through agriculture, small enterprises, and unpaid care work yet much of this contribution remains uncounted in formal statistics.
When women's work is invisible in data, the consequences are concrete:
As the saying goes in the world of data: what is not counted, does not count. GROOTS Kenya's participation in the Women Count Programme has been about changing that building the visibility, the evidence, and the institutional voice that grassroots women deserve.
[Side Event hosted by the Government of Kenya & Government of China in partnership with FAO | Speaker: Eunice Mwangi, Executive Director]
Land governance was a thread running through much of GROOTS Kenya's presence at CSW70 and nowhere was it more directly addressed than at this side event co-hosted by the Government of Kenya, the Government of China, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Titled "Advancing Gender-Responsive Land Governance and Resource Rights: Harnessing Digital Transitions," the event explored how digital innovations and policy reforms can strengthen women's land and resource rights while dismantling the legal and institutional barriers that continue to limit women's access to land, justice, and economic opportunity.
Our Executive Director, Eunice Mwangi, joined a high-level gathering of partners including the European Union in Kenya, the State Department for Gender, the National Land Commission, Oxfam in Africa, the Council of Governors Kenya, Landesa, and the Kenya Land Alliance (KLA) a constellation of actors reflecting the cross-sectoral effort required to make gender-responsive land governance a reality.
For grassroots women, land is never merely property. It is the foundation of livelihoods, dignity, climate resilience, and intergenerational security. A woman who cannot own or inherit land cannot build a home, access credit, or weather a drought. She cannot pass security to her children. Digital tools from community mapping platforms to electronic land registries hold real promise for making women's land rights visible, verifiable, and enforceable. But only if the policies and institutions behind them are designed with women's realities in mind.
Eunice brought GROOTS Kenya's grassroots evidence to that table: the stories of women whose names are absent from land titles, widows displaced from family property, and communities using citizen-led mapping to reclaim what is rightfully theirs.
[Virtual Side Event hosted by Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) & IIED | Speaker: Njoki Macharia, GROOTS Kenya Grassroots Champion, Laikipia County]
In a virtual side event titled "Rethinking Power and Women's Leadership," hosted jointly by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), GROOTS Kenya was represented by Njoki Macharia a grassroots champion from Laikipia County who took the global stage to speak about what transformative leadership actually looks like when it is rooted in community.
The session spotlighted the role of women leaders in advancing rights, representation, and justice within their communities not from the top down, but from the ground up. Njoki's presence was itself an argument: that the women who understand land rights most intimately are the ones who live on contested land, farm it, lose access to it, and fight to reclaim it. They are not waiting for leadership to arrive. They are the leaders.
Her participation was a reminder that rethinking power means more than reshuffling who sits at the table. It means asking whose knowledge shapes the agenda, whose experience defines the problem, and whose strategies get resourced and scaled
[IIED Online Side Event | Speakers: Doris Munyingi, Programs Manager
Our Programs Manager, Doris Munyingi, and Grassroots Champion Njoki Macharia participated in an online side event hosted by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), titled "From land rights to a gender-just economy: lessons from Indigenous and pastoralist women."
The event brought together grassroots leaders and civil society organizations from across Africa and Latin America to share lessons on advancing women's land rights and economic justice a conversation that is deeply grounded in the communities GROOTS Kenya serves every day.
Across many communities in Kenya and beyond, women rely on land and natural resources as the foundation of their livelihoods. Yet structural barriers cultural, legal, and institutional continue to block women's access to ownership, control, and decision-making over those same resources. Doris shared insights from GROOTS Kenya's grassroots movement on how community-led advocacy is confronting these barriers and building pathways to more equitable land governance and economic participation.
[CSW70 Side Event | Speaker: Wairimu Kanyiri, Grassroots Champion for Transformative Development]
Perhaps the most powerful voice GROOTS Kenya brought to CSW70 was that of Wairimu Kanyiri a grassroots champion for transformative development who stood in one of the world's most high-profile policy spaces and spoke the truth that too often gets filtered out before it reaches those rooms.
Drawing from her lived experience as a grassroots leader, Wairimu spoke to why it matters deeply and urgently for women at the community level to have a seat at the table where global decisions are made. Policies shaped without the voices of those most affected by them miss the real issues women face every day. They produce commitments that look good on paper and leave communities unchanged.
She also named a painful truth: many women's issues around leadership, gender-based violence, and justice are still handled informally and unjustly in community spaces. Sometimes quite literally under trees, where decisions are made without proper protection, accountability, or recourse for the women involved.
For Wairimu, attending CSW70 was not merely an act of representation. It was an act of responsibility to carry grassroots realities into global spaces, and to ensure they shape global solutions.
Her words were a reminder that the real measure of spaces like CSW is not how many grassroots women can see in, but how much of their reality can be heard.
Why CSW70 Mattered and What GROOTS Kenya Brought to It
This year's CSW was notable beyond the content of its discussions. For the first time in the Commission's 70-year history, the Agreed Conclusions were adopted by recorded vote rather than consensus 37 in favour, 1 against, and 6 abstentions a reflection of the geopolitical tensions surrounding women's rights in the current global moment. That this outcome was still achieved is a testament to the determination of the majority of Member States to uphold commitments to gender equality.
Against this backdrop, civil society voices were not a footnote. They were essential.
GROOTS Kenya's contribution at CSW70 was the insistence that global frameworks on justice, data, and land rights are only as strong as their connection to the communities they are meant to serve. Citizen data rooted in grassroots realities. Land rights measured against the lives of widows and women farmers. Justice judged not by what laws say, but by what women experience.
We went to New York as a movement. We returned with renewed purpose: to keep building the evidence, the advocacy and the solidarity that grassroots women in Kenya and across the world deserve.
The Regenerative Seascapes Project for Planet, Nature and People (ReSea) was officially launched on October 24th at an event in Dabaso Primary School, Watamu, Kilifi County, Kenya. ReSea is a 3-year, $30 million project, $7 million of which goes to Kenya, implemented by Mission Inclusion in partnership with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), made possible with the support of Global Affairs Canada.
ReSea aims to enhance the climate and socio-economic resilience of 350,000 people in coastal communities across Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Comoros, and Madagascar. The project focuses on strengthening the conservation of marine protected areas, implementing nature-based solutions for climate adaptation, and empowering women economically in blue economy value chains. In Kenya, the project will be implemented in three counties in Kilifi County, Kilifi North, Malindi and Magarini. Approximately 80,000 people living in these areas will benefit directly from project interventions.
Expressing the Ministry's support for the project, Ministry of Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs Cabinet Secretary Hon. Salim Mvurya, EGH said' "This [project] is aligned with the Government’s priorities of enhancing economic development and poverty eradication as defined under the Blue Economy strategy and other related policies. It is also aligned with the ongoing KEMFSED [Kenya Marine and Fisheries Socio-Economic Development] project of which some of you are already beneficiaries. Nature-based solutions are also aligned with ecosystem restoration and reforestation which has the full support of H.E. The President under the 15 billion tree initiative."
Head of Cooperation at the High Commission of Canada Janine Cocker stated, “To this end, I am delighted to announce that Global Affairs Canada is not working alone in this endeavour. We have partnered with a diverse array of organizations, governments, and communities across the globe who share our vision of a world where oceans thrive, and coastal communities prosper. Together, we are leveraging our collective knowledge, resources, and expertise to make the Regenerative Seascapes project a resounding success.”
At the launch event, Richard Veenstra, Executive Director of Mission Inclusion, remarked: "Through ReSea, we aim to co-create locally tailored solutions by collaborating closely with various stakeholders, including civil society organizations, the private sector, and national and local governments. Our primary focus is to empower women, youth, and vulnerable individuals, as we believe these groups possess untapped potential to be key players in sustainable development and the blue economy. This collaborative, horizontal approach aims to drive lasting change, benefiting both people and the environment."
Innocent Kabenga, Kenya Country Representative of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), stated: "Today's launch marks a critical milestone in our dedication to coastal and ocean resilience, a key thematic pillar in IUCN's work in Eastern and Southern Africa. Through ReSea, we are not only investing in the prosperity of coastal communities but we are also fortifying the very ecosystems that sustain us. This initiative aligns seamlessly with the African-driven Great Blue Wall, reinforcing our commitment to the nature conservation—climate change—blue economy nexus. Together, we are establishing a connected network of regenerative seascapes, governed inclusively, to deliver lasting benefits for both people and nature."
Fridah Githuku, Executive Director, GROOTS Kenya added, "By hosting this event at Dabaso with hundreds of local communities here, men and women. We acknowledge that all our solutions are community- led, Locally-led, bottom-up, gender and youth responsive." GROOTS Kenya is one of the implementing partners for the project in Kenya.
Speaking at the launch, Kilifi County Governor H.E Gideon Mung’aro O.G.W, thanked Global Affairs Canada and project implementers. Addressing the people of Kilifi, he stated, "[This project] targets you as the climate action heroes, you as the conservation ambassadors, you as drivers of the ocean economy. We are blessed with resources such as Arabuko Sokoke, mangroves, historical and cultural sites, the ocean and fisheries resources and the only county with two marine parks. These resources are the backbone of our economy, and we have a cultural attachment to them. The only way to ensure that we continue enjoying the goods and services that they provide is by discouraging any destructive activities and promoting sustainable solutions that work for us and nature."
The launch event brought together over 600 participants including community members, local leaders, project partners and government representatives. Guests took part in a ceremonial tree planting, discussed the importance of ReSea in Kenya, and witnessed the symbolic signing of a blue board.
Over the next three years, ReSea will work directly with communities across Kenya to implement initiatives aimed at strengthening biodiversity conservation, climate adaptation, and women's economic empowerment. Aligned with the African-led Great Blue Wall initiative, the project represents a significant investment in building the sustainability and resilience of coastal and marine ecosystems, economies, and people in the face of climate change.
For Juliet in Mathare, wearing a mask is no longer about COVID-19; it is about survival. Every day, smoke from burning waste seeps into her home, threatening her grandson’s lungs and straining her own fragile health. Her story echoes across Nairobi’s informal settlements, where air pollution silently erodes health, dignity, and opportunity.
At GROOTS Kenya, we know that clean air is the foundation of dignity and survival, and the pathway through which communities can safeguard generations and shape a just future. The State of Global Air 2024 report establishes that air pollution accounted for 8.1 million deaths globally in 2021, becoming the second leading risk factor for death, including for children under five years.
Tiny, invisible particles penetrate lungs, bloodstreams, and bodies, causing one-third of deaths from stroke, respiratory disease, and lung cancer. Pollution also fuels climate change, reduces agricultural productivity, and weighs heavily on economies. This is why the UN calls us to join the race for clean air, a race that informal settlements like Mathare, Kibra, Korogocho, and Mukuru are already running.
Three decades of transformative work in rural and information communities in Kenya have led us at GROOTS Kenya to know that real solutions emerge not from top-down prescriptions, but from co-creation with communities. Using our champion-led model, the first half of 2025 saw us train more than 100 community members to gain a deeper understanding of air pollution and its linkages to their health and livelihoods. Communities were trained in waste management, air quality rights, and data-driven advocacy. These awakenings have seen these champions mobilizing neighbors, engaging policymakers, and using digital platforms to amplify their voices.
In Mathare and Kibera, GROOTS Kenya worked with community members to conduct two community clean-ups. Streets and drainage channels clogged with burning waste were cleared, waste was segregated, and recyclables were linked to local processors. Each clean-up was paired with hands-on training, seeding a culture of ownership and empowering women and youth to become ambassadors for clean air.
Despite the urgent and sobering health risks of air pollution, the stories emerging from our champions give us hope. Youth are using digital platforms to share safe practices, and women are turning waste into new opportunities. These community-led actions prove that solutions are possible and that even in the most affected settlements, change is already taking root.
While air pollution knows no borders, its impacts are not equally shared. Low-income communities contribute the least but suffer the most. In Nairobi, air pollution claims 2,500 lives annually, with informal settlements bearing the heaviest burden (Clean Air Fund). Women and children, who spend more time near smoky kitchens and waste sites, pay the steepest price.
Yet, these same communities are showing that solutions are possible. When women lead waste management initiatives, they reduce household smoke exposure. When youth take on digital campaigns for peer-to-peer learning, they spread sustainable practices faster than any poster campaign. And when grassroots voices are at the table, policies become inclusive, realistic, and just. These local actions connect to global commitments.
Every clean-up in Mathare and Kibra advances SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities) and SDG 13 (Climate Action). Every grassroots champion embodies the UN’s call that “we’re racing for clean air, together.”
It is succinctly documented that the costs of inaction are far higher than the cost of action, actually staggering, including lost productivity, overwhelmed health systems, and weakened economies. But the benefits of action are immediate and profound and include healthier people, stronger economies, and a more stable climate.
On this International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies, we invite partners, policymakers, and donors to join the race alongside grassroots communities. With sustained investment, we can scale clean-ups, expand training, and replicate grassroots-led innovations across Kenya and beyond. This is not just an environmental issue but a fight for justice, health, and the future of our children. Grassroots women and youth are already leading the way, and what’s needed now is the will to match their courage with investment and action.
Juliet’s story reminds us why this matters. Together with grassroots women and youth, we can co-create a future where every Kenyan breathes clean, safe air and where communities stand not at the margins of decision-making, but at its very heart.
GROOTS Kenya has once again made history! We are proud to announce that we have been recognized as the Overall Best NGO for Promoting Gender Equality at the prestigious Diversity and Inclusion Awards & Recognition (DIAR) Awards 2025. This award is a testament of our relentless commitment to empowering grassroots women and their communities, amplifying their voices, and ensuring gender equity in leadership, land rights, economic empowerment, and decision-making processes. It is particularly special since it comes as we celebrate 30 years of grassroots women empowerment.
For nearly three decades, GROOTS Kenya has been at the forefront of transforming communities through champion-led solutions to their identified societal challenges. Through tested models that include; Local to local dialogues, Champions for transformative action, community watch dogs and the champion led model, this recognition validates the work of thousands of grassroots women leaders, community champions, and partners who dedicate their efforts to challenging systemic inequalities and advocating for grassroots women’s rights at all levels. Indeed, grassroots women are a formidable force to be reckoned with, when it comes to real and lasting impact in grassroots transformation.
The DIAR Awards celebrate organizations and individuals making a tangible impact in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) across different sectors in Kenya. Being named the best NGO in gender equality reflects the transformative impact of our programs, which include:
This recognition fuels our mission to scale our impact, build stronger alliances, and continue advocating for policies and practices that meaningfully facilitate grassroots women to be at the center of Kenya’s development agenda. It also serves as a challenge—to do more, reach more, and push for greater gender-transformative policies that benefit all women, especially those in marginalized communities – to truly leave no one behind. The 2025 DIAR award is timely as GROOTS Kenya celebrates 30 years of impacting and transforming the lives of grassroots women in Kenya.
We extend our heartfelt gratitude to our grassroots champions, partners, stakeholders, and supporters who have and continue to walk this journey with us. This award belongs to every grassroot woman who has dared to challenge the status quo, every community leader who has driven transformative change, and every partner who believes in and supports our vision.
The journey towards gender justice is far from over, but together, we are unstoppable!
1st Edition - The Standard Newspaper (19th March 2025) page 9
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From Baringo to Kilifi, Nakuru to Kakamega, Kiambu to Tana River, Laikipia to Kitui, Nairobi to Busia, Nyandarua to Murang’a – Grassroots Women Are Leading the Way!
Thirty years ago, a movement was born out of necessity and urgency. The voices of grassroots women—women who take care of the land, raise families, run businesses, and drive community change—were missing from key decision-making spaces. In 1995, inspired by the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action adopted in Beijing. China at the 4th World Conference on Women, GROOTS Kenya was founded to bridge that gap, ensuring that these women not only participate meaningfully but that they are leading and contributing to shaping policies that impact their lives.
Fast forward to today, and the movement has grown into a national force spanning 22 counties, over 5,000 women-led groups, and countless impactful stories of women who have defied the odds to take up leadership, claim land rights, fight gender-based violence (GBV), and build economic resilience.
“The Journey of GROOTS Kenya at 30” – Testimonials from grassroots champions across pioneering counties – Collated videos taken from the subcounty movement building activity.
As we mark this 30-year milestone, grassroots women have been leading their own celebrations at the sub-county and county levels across 12 pioneering counties:
Baringo | Kilifi | Nakuru | Kakamega | Kiambu | Tana River | Laikipia | Kitui | Nairobi | Busia | Nyandarua | Murang’a
In these counties, women have gathered in their communities, reflecting on their journeys—from securing women’s land rights to becoming elected leaders, from overcoming ending violence to building thriving enterprises and nurturing their families and communities.
Photo Gallery: County-Level Celebrations & Community Stories
Each event has been a powerful reminder that real transformation begins at the grassroots level. These celebrations are not just about the past 30 years; they are about strengthening the intergenerational foundations built over the three decades and reclaiming the future.
The momentum now builds toward Tuesday, March 4, 2025, when GROOTS Kenya will host a national culmination event in Kiambu County. This gathering will bring together:
This historic event will feature:
🗣 Keynote speeches from women who have led transformative change
🏆 Recognition of grassroots champions who have shaped the movement
📢 A call to action for the next decade of GROOTS Kenya
GROOTS Kenya at 30 is more than a celebration—it is a renewed commitment to amplifying the voices of grassroots women in leadership, governance, and economic empowerment. The Beijing+30 moment reminds us that while progress has been made, the promise for an equal, just, inclusive and transformed society is still not achieved.
Grassroots women remain on the frontlines of climate justice, economic justice, and social justice. Their stories are stories of power, determination, and unwavering belief that communities thrive when women in all their diversities are at the decision-making table.
Join us in this historic celebration. Follow the journey, share the stories, and be part of the movement!
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#GROOTSKenyaAt30 | #Beijing30
Gender-based violence cases on the rise as Kiambu ranked 3rd after Nairobi and Kisumu.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p2uuv45JOs
https://taifaleo.nation.co.ke/habari-mseto/shirika-la-groots-kenya-lalaani-vitendo-vya-ubakaji-kiambu
Groots Kenya, a National movement of grassroots women- led community-based groups (CBOs) and Self-Help Groups (SHGs) in Kenya says that the situation has aggravated mental illnesses.
Read more: http://latestnewskenya.com/?p=3942
In Kenya, 65 % of households (8.1 million people) use firewood as their primary cooking fuel. Out of this number, 71% of households use a woodstove as either their primary or secondary cookstove. A greater prevalence of these households (92%) are in rural areas. The use of firewood for cooking in Kenya has serious implications on public health. It exposes users to many health problems, especially lung diseases. An estimated 21,560 deaths are caused by household air pollution (HAP) every year (Clean Cooking Sector Study, 2019).
The uptake of improved and clean cooking technologies and fuels is still very low, especially in rural areas. A survey conducted by GROOTS Kenya in 2017 for Kitui County showed that 67% rely on traditional three-stone cooking stoves for everyday cooking. They cited high costs, technology suitability of improved jikos e.g. efficiency, ease of use and durability as some of the factors that determine the choice of the stove. In Kilifi County, a clean cooking context analysis found that 83% of the population use biomass, with a bigger percentage depending mainly on firewood and three-stones cooking method.
In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, restricted movement means that rural women and girls who mainly depend on biomass for cooking will face difficulties fetching firewood that is mainly sourced from nearby forests/areas.
GROOTS Kenya, in collaboration with SNV through the Voice for Change Partnership has been promoting increased adoption of clean cookstoves and fuels in Kenya through interventions at both demand and supply sides. Working with rural women clean cooking champions is one of the approaches that has brought attention to the clean cooking energy agenda to both policy makers and the public, with a few counties gradually picking up this priority for planning and budgeting. Such efforts need to be accelerated as air pollution is an ongoing global crisis.
GROOTS Kenya is a national movement of grassroots women-led community-based groups (CBOs) and Self Help Groups (SHGs) in Kenya, we empower women to be champions in development and effective leaders and agents of change in their communities. GROOTS Kenyan partnership with SNV is implementing the Voice for Change Program, The projects overall goal is to facilitate an enabling environment for increased adoption of clean stoves and fuels in Kenya. GROOTS Kenya seeks to achieve this by supporting counties develop clean cooking plans entrenched into policy and working with member of the private sector and local women entrepreneurs to model alternative modern technologies and employ the champions model a cross counties in Kenya to increase voices demanding for implementation of clean cooking related policies and programs.
What a timing for the 2020 World Waters Day in the wake of COVID-19!
The world, including the most economically developed nations have not been spared by the deadly Coronavirus. In order to contain and combat spreading of the humbling and threatening COVID-19, the Kenya government has put in place strict and specific for the public and everyone for that matter, that they must observe at all times. As the international community celebrates the annual World Water Day on March 22, 2020, it is important that we pause to observe certain realities. How many times, for instance, have we heard the phrase wash your hand with water and soap? We have constantly been told that proper of washing hands with soap and water is the most effective and cheapest form of controlling infections. But even as we fight the spread of COVID-19, there is need for the government and ourselves to ask; where is this water? How cheap is this water? How many Kenyans and specifically the women at the grassroots have access to water, and quality water at that?
The WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) joint monitoring programme report (2019) by The World Health Organization and UNICEF found that only 59% of Kenyans have access to basic water services[1]. What hope do the remaining 41% have in light of the COVID-19 virus? This is a critical issue that we as a nation has address as a matter of priority and urgency, especially at this time when we are trying to fight spread of the Coronavirus pandemic from causing further economic and social devastation and to ensure the welfare of the people and specifically women at the country’s grassroots.
In some areas of Kenya, grassroots women have to walk up to a minimum of more than two kilometers to fetch water. In the capital Nairobi, taps are most times dry and the City thirsty, with most of the residents who live in highly populated estates and slums do not have constant supply of clean water. The consequence of this at this time especially, is that it exposes the residents to a high risk of being infected with COVID-19. This also applies to most rural areas of Kenya which experience lack of effective and constant supply of safe and clean water. The COVID-19 pandemic has further compounded the care burden of women. This is because, women traditionally bear the burden of sourcing for water and taking care of the sick and the family in general. If women are unable to access clean and quality water, the situation will becomes dire for them, families and the society in general.
Water and Sanitation services is provided for in Chapter 4 (Bill of Rights), of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 Section 43 (1d) of the Constitution of Kenya states that “every person has the right to clean and safe water in adequate quantities”. The Kenya vision 2030 strives to ensure the availability and access to water and improved sanitation for all. However, this vision has been curtailed by among others, corruption cartels that are aided by the same political class that is charged with the responsibility to deliver Vision 2030. We have clear examples in the Arror and Kimwarer Dams scandal, and The Galana Kulalu irrigation project scandal.
Even as the uncertainty of the Coronavirus pandemic continues to occupy the minds of every Kenyan, on this World Water Day, it is pertinent that both the national and county governments put in place radical and extra ordinary measures to ensure that women in the grassroots in all the 47 counties have constant access to water to- at the very least- be able to wash their hands (with soap) within the households!
GROOTS Kenya which works with women in the grassroots and in slums, believes that –and from experience-that placing women in positions of leadership at all levels in the water sector is crucial in ensuring increased access to water by the women in Kenya and particulary those living in the rural areas and the slums. It is in this light the organization has collected and is collating data on women’s access to water and evidence generation. The two levels of governments in our nation must also do the same as they seek to provide water, the all-important and golden liquid which together with soap-will help in fighting the pandemic that has invaded the world and threatening our nation and ensure women in grassroots areas of Kenya access quality water.
