KWALE, Kenya, Jan 15 – The Catharine Ndereba led Gender, Welfare and Equality Committee in Sports has recommended stringent action against perpetrators of Gender Based Violence (GVB).
The Report recommends that the Office of Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) cracks the whip by fast tracking investigations and prosecutions of reported perpetrators of GVB in the sporting industry.
Speaking in Kwale County during the ongoing Agnes Tirop Conference where she handed over the Report to Sports CS Amb. Dr. Amina Mohammed, Ndereba noted that prosecution and conviction will ensure that the rogue and criminal individuals within the sporting ecosystem are punished and victims get justice that has for long been denied to them.
The report further calls on the DPP “to commence collecting data on cases involving offenders in the sport industry, especially data that is relevant to GBV cases in sports.”
The data, the Report says, should show charges preferred against the offenders and outcomes of the cases.
Ndereba believes that timely investigations and prosecutions by GVB will only elevate Kenyan sport to a desirable level.
The Report also wants the Ministry of Sports to undertake an immediate review of the Kenya National Sports Policy 2005 (Session Paper No. 03 of 2005) and the Sports Act 2013 to formulate and implement a National Gender Welfare in Sports Policy, reviewing existing legal framework.
The Report also wants the Ministry to create an integrated Sports Management System that will enable it to include gender concerns within the sports industry to enable it address concern raised by the stakeholders.
Ndereba’s team also wants the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government and the National Police Service to provide security to the victims, survivors and individual reporters of sexual and GBV cases immediately after receiving reports.
They also recommend that it conducts proper and fill investigations and arrests the perpetrators of sexual and GBV.
But DPP Noordin Haji, who was in attendance highlighted challenges that could curtail the campaign against GBV.
“In relation to prosecution, we can only present cases to judges that contain adequate evidence. We also lack the requisite infrustrure to deliver this initiative. Corruption also plays a big role in hampering us to prosecute perpetrators.”
The teams Committee also wants the Attorney and General to assist in drafting, approving relevant Regulations of the Sports Act 2013 and provide affirming action steps to be taken.
Ndereba Reports also calls on the media to get involved and create awareness about sexual a d GBV affecting women and children in sports.
On her part, Chief Justice Martha Koome, who was represented by Supreme Court judge Njoki Ndung’u, said women in the sporting circles should be given equal opportunities in all measures.
“To be sure, girls and women have not been completely absent from the Kenyan sporting space. Girls and women have been participating in sporting activities and also watch sporting events as fans,” Koome said.
“For example, we celebrate all Kenyan female athletes including Agnes Tirop to whom we are paying tribute today who have always shone on track events and won many medals at the Olympics and other competitions at the international and continental level.”
“Another noteworthy example is the Kenya Women’s volleyball team, the Malkia Strikers, which has dominated the African continent since the 1990s. These are just few examples of many of our sporting heroines that have done our country proud.”