Women's rights activists call for release of GBV taskforce report

There is a growing frustration among Kenyans over delayed release and implementation of the report by the presidential taskforce on GBV including femicide.

Months after its completion, the findings and recommendations of the report remain unpublicized raising questions over the urgency of tackling the crisis.

As the world kicks off the 16-days of Activism Against GBV, Women Rights defenders have raised concerns that delaying the implementation of the report worsens the pain of victims of SGBV and emboldens the perpetrators.

“This is a request from the End Femicide Movement and the women of Kenya; we would like to see that report and chart a way forward,” said Jovian Linda, a women rights activist from Linda from Kisumu Social Inclusion Network calling for collaboration to review the report.

Linda spoke on Tuesday at the annual Human Rights Defenders Academy in Nairobi, a forum convened by the National Coalition of Human Rights Defenders.

The HRD Academy brings together human rights defenders and activists from the 47 counties working across women’s rights, child protection, SOGIE justice, sexual and reproductive health, and environmental advocacy, among others.

The report was handed over to Deputy President Kithure Kindiki in August by the Technical Working Group Gender-Based Violence (GBV) including femicide, led by Dr Nancy Baraza. The report was to give a roadmap on how to tackle the GBV crisis. The task force was constituted by President William Ruto in January 2025 following rising cases of GBV and femicide.

The Baraza-led team was to assess, review, and recommend measures to strengthen the institutional, legal and policy response to GBV and femicide. The team conducted public hearings across the country to receive views and recommendations from individuals and organisations on how to tackle GBV and submitted the report to Prof Kindiki but it has not been publicised.

Among the recommendations that Kenyans, victims of GBV and rights groups made to the team is declaring GBV including femicide a national crisis and establishment of standalone law that recognises femicide as a specific criminal offence of killing women and girls because of their gender.

Last week, Internal Security Principal Secretary Raymond Omollo chaired a meeting with the joint secretaries of the Technical Working Group on Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and femicide.

“We focused on reviewing and reinforcing existing policy frameworks, identifying gaps in implementation and proposing actionable strategies to enhance coordination among government agencies, civil society and community stakeholders, with emphasis on ensuring that vulnerable populations are effectively protected,” Dr Omollo said.

According to Linda, women and girls are still being gagged for reporting GBV cases. “We have a lot of issues within the gender desk spaces. Police do not know how to respond to some of the cases due to some gender biases,” said Linda.

She added that awareness creation and sensitisation training for police officer has had positive impact. She mentioned Kisumu as one of the counties where cases of GBV are on the rise. Linda recalled that the EndFemicide Movement was birthed following a worrying rise in femicide cases, especially among women under 30 years who were often blamed or dismissed as “gold diggers” or seeking shortcuts in life.

She said there are deeper root causes of the menace including unchecked gender-based violence, poverty and a generation trying to survive without support systems.

She said this pushed them to create a movement that equips young women with knowledge, protection, and access to justice.