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{
"id": 1162892,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1162892/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Halake",
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"speaker": {
"id": 13184,
"legal_name": "Abshiro Soka Halake",
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"content": "Madam Deputy Speaker, a new study launched by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the African Parliamentary Union (APU) on 23rd November, 2021 reveals that sexism, harassment and violence are a norm across parliaments in Africa. The study on African parliaments, reveals that 80 per cent of women parliamentarians experience psychological violence in parliament; 67 per cent are subjected to sexist behavior or remarks; 40 per cent have been sexually harassed; 23 per cent endured physical violence; while 42 per cent received threats of rape, beatings or abduction, majorly online. This Statement comes to this House as a way of ensuring that this study does not go unnoticed in African parliaments, especially because it touches African parliamentarians. The study further indicates that the majority of abuses targeting women parliamentarians is perpetrated by male counterparts especially from the rival parties and political leanings particularly, women parliamentarians with disabilities, women under 40, unmarried women and women from minority groups face a higher incidence of violence. As a Parliament, we have not been spared of these incidences of sexism and harassment that target women parliamentarians especially now with the electioneering period in the horizon and therefore, the topical manner and the issue at hand. Madam Deputy Speaker, the previous IPU studies, together with the new African study, shows that women MPs all over the world suffer similar levels of harassment and sexism. However, with a prevalence of 39 per cent, the level of sexual violence against women parliamentarians in Africa is considerably higher than in European parliaments, which is by14 percentage points and compared to global figures by 17 percentage points. When it comes to parliamentary staff, the prevalence is even higher, with 46 per cent of the sample experiencing sexual violence compared with 41 per cent in Europe. The study suggests that this can be partly explained by the political, socio-cultural and religious contexts within which women parliamentarians live in Africa. For example, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, in 2018, Africa has had the highest number of conflict-related incidents of sexual violence. If women in the August House can face these forms of sexual abuses, what about ordinary women out there? Indeed, women are grappling with widespread violence, sexism and harassment in our societies. It does not only harm their wellbeing and overall development as human beings but also exposes them to the risk of losing their lives. Unfortunately, the IPU/APU report points to an insidious pattern of normalized sexual discrimination against women parliamentarians in Africa. Therefore, by normalizing violence, sexism and harassment against women in privileged and protected institutions such as parliament, we deter their desire to effect meaningful change through democratic representation of their constituents. It also dims the morale of other women seeking to join elective politics in a society that yearns for gender equality and equity. Madam Deputy Speaker, in this regard, there is an urgent need for African parliaments, including the Kenyan institution, to institute mechanisms to protect women parliamentarians from sexism and other forms of sexual harassment and violence. This can be achieved through independent receipt and processing of gender sexual harassment and discrimination complaints that protect the victims from retribution by the perpetrators."
}