Climate justice is nothing without gender justice

Nonguta Lesingiran scoops water from a shallow well on a riverbed in Longopito B village, Oldonyiro, Isiolo county. [File, Standard]

The 16 Days of Action Against Gender Based Violence begin on November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, coming three days after the end of the global climate talks, the Conference of the Parties (COP29), in Baku, Azerbaijan, which put the gender agenda at the tail end of the programme.

By this time, a lot of participants in COP29 will have left for home and the remaining likely outworn after two weeks away. It almost feels like the last Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exam candidates to sit those technical epapers after so many others have left for home. This last week has been interesting, with one eye in Baku, and the other in the Northern part of Kenya, where I shared a room with real victims of gender violence, some who are lucky to be alive after escaping forced early marriages duly arranged by their family members.