Provision of Human Rights Information to Rural women in Nandi South District, Nandi County, Kenya.

Abstract

Lack of human rights awareness meant to make human beings live quality lifestyles as succinctly expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 has continued to be a major deterrent to development. Marginalised groups like women, the illiterate, rural dwellers and the disadvantaged because of creed, race, religion, poverty and age may not benefit from the human rights that more privileged men enjoy. For this group to enjoy their human rights, they should know their rights so as to demand for them. Although appropriate human rights information policies and strategies have been put in place; rural women in Kenya still manifest ignorance on their human rights provisions which should have positively affected their lifestyles and response to human rights infringements. Rigid customary beliefs, low level of education and poor communication channels have been cited as causes that make women fail to know their rights. This study aimed to investigate the provision and access to human rights information by rural women in Nandi South District with a view of establishing the challenges and gaps and suggesting a framework of improving information access and provision. The objectives of the study were: to find out the extent of awareness of human rights information by rural women; establish ways in which they access and use these information; ascertain information sources, services and systems that exist to provide them with Human Rights Information, determine the most preferred channels, establish factors that hinder their provision and suggest a framework for improving these parameters. Information and communication, Sense-making and Feminists theories informed this study. A sample of 189 female respondents aged between 18-70 years from five sub- locations in Nandi South District. Key government officers, NGO leaders and individual Women Human rights activists and key cultural informants above 70 years participated in the study. Both qualitative and quantitative techniques of data analysis were applied. The findings indicated that the majority of rural women are not aware of their human rights as a tool that guarantees their socio-economic, political and cultural rights; majority are semi-illiterate which makes it difficult for them to fully make use of instruments containing Human Rights Information which are mainly written in English. They cannot access information through modern channels due to unavailability of electricity and other modern facilities. The study recommends that women be sensitized by use of preferred languages and easily accessed channels. The study encourages a change of men’s attitudes towards women. Setting up of gender empowerment centres in rural areas was also suggested. The study has proposed a model which is an integration of Information and Communication; Sense-making and Feminist theories for improving provision of Human Rights Information to rural women.