GROOTS Kenya in partnership with Equal Measures 2030 is working with grassroots women and relevant stakeholders in Kenya to advocate for gender responsive Medium Term Plans and County Integrated Development Plans. Both the MTP111 and CIDPs are currently under development.  Gender Equality Champions trained under this project are spearheading community-led monitoring of the implementation using an agreed set of indicators.

To kick start the project, GROOTS Kenya developed the SDGs Monitoring Framework to equip grassroots women and their communities with the capacity and evidence to monitor progress on the localization of agenda 2030 by national and local governments with a key focus on gender equality.

GROOTS Kenya further trained 42 trainers of trainers who will in turn train other community members on the SDGs to create a critical mass of gender equality champions in Kiambu, Kakamega and Laikipia Counties.

The champions have already selected 12 goals, 23 targets and 25 indicators to monitor, against the 17 global goals, 169 targets and 232 indicators. Their selections are based on the priority needs within their communities.

The data collected will be the basis on which the advocacy begins.

Partners-EQUAL MEASURES

Beneficiaries - 5 counties: Kitui, Nakuru, Laikipia, Kiambu and Kakamega.

GROOTS Kenya continues to reach out to Orphans and Vulnerable children in Ndeiya, Mathare and Kibera to facilitate an environment where they can achieve their dreams and live better lives.

In Ndeiya, GROOTS Kenya is working with 29 caregivers and a team of 22 community leaders (child protection committee) to support 178 OVCs i.e. 38 Total Orphans, 35 vulnerable children and 105 with single absentee parents, from 40 vulnerable households. 80% of these households are headed by elderly grandmothers with an average age of 70 years. The children were put under their maternal grandmothers after they lost both or one of their parents due to HIV and AIDS and family conflicts.

The children have received various kinds of support including full scholarships, leadership training and counselling services. Some of the children are now running their own businesses after receiving start up capital to set up income generating activities such as hairdressing salons.

In 2012 GROOTS Kenya developed the well documented Community-led Public Land Mapping model, with an aim of putting local communities at the forefront to safeguard the much threatened public land in Kenya. The model has since been piloted in 3 sub counties of Lari (Kiambu), Kigumo (Muranga), Kiharu(Muranga). The model involve targeted & sustained civic education to increase citizen pressure for successful land reform, a community led research on the level of awareness on legal and policy framework in the land sector, local community skills development on ICT, digital mapping of all public land in selected sub counties, development of a digital inventory of public land and maps, ongoing community led advocacy on proper & participatory management and utilization of all identified and documented public land by the state. This model has since been formerly adopted by Muranga County and piloted in two sub counties.

The National land Commission  & the World Bank has acknowledged it as an informatory model in the development of an inventory for Kenya. The model has been documented by GROOTS Kenya in the Taking action, community reference book, by university of Copenhagen & Denmark.

The project has since 2011 received support from SIDA!

Empowering grassroots women to use technology to secure and safeguard public land

Illegal and irregular allocation of public land to those with resources and those in power has denied communities living in poor settings access to  quality public services, like heath, education, water, sanitation, market spaces, among others.

Public land grabbing is one of the major forms of corruption perpetuated by those bestowed with administration and management authority and  unfortunately the public has remain powerless. Women living in poverty and in margins of development shoulder the highest burden when public land is not used to provide essential public services.

The Kenya National Land Policy 2009 and 2010 Constitution of Kenya acknowledge the lack of a comprehensive inventory of public land as a major bottleneck. They also reckon the need for a participatory approach led by the National Land Commission to create such an inventory.

As a proactive initiative, GROOTS Kenya decided to empower grassroots women to provide leadership in developing a model that would be used by the country to undertake a participatory inventory of public land. First and foremost, the initiative ensured that a critical mass of community members, predominantly grassroots women, understood the role land plays in development and the process and status of land reform in Kenya.
Importantly, the project supported women and community leaders to take stock and record all the public land in their areas of residence. A select group was then nominated to undergo a technical training on the GIS using GPS and tablets to record. Their role was then to visit each and every piece of public land mapped and take all the coordinates. The information was finally transferred using Arc GIS software to create a digital map of this record.

Through this initiative, communities realized their role to protect illegal and irregular allocation of public land. This is evi-dent from the actions they have taken since to safeguard public land. Moreover, government and land experts appreciate the role and capacity of women who in turn are invited and recognized as leaders in their own rights. Last but not least, planners and decision makers have used the developed map to plan and budget effectively for development initiatives.

GROOTS Kenya has for over 10 years worked with grassroots women in various communities to curb asset stripping and disinheritance with specific emphasis on matrimonial property.

For most low income households, matrimonial land is not only the main source of livelihood but it also provides the invaluable sense of security and identity. Yet, some retrogressive social and cultural practices such as asset stripping and disinheritance often deny them access to and use of matrimonial land thus subjecting them to abject poverty and destitution after the death of their husbands in the hands of male relatives. GROOTS Kenya’s interventions have achieved great success through the Community Watchdog Groups (WDGs) model. The Community Land and Watchdog Groups, formed in 2004 are composed of grassroots women, men, opinion leaders, local provincial administrators and church elders. The groups have played an important role in halting disinheritance of widows & orphans in Kiambu County. Through arbitration, the groups have enhanced access to justice for the poor at grassroots levels. Through GROOTS Kenya partnership with European Union, UN Women, Huaroiu Commission widows have regained access & control of their matrimonial homes which would often be taken away by unruly in-laws. Many orphans have remained in school and at their parental homes after being deceased