Category: GBV Campaign

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Campaign against forced evictions GBV Campaign

Gender-Based Violence in Mathare Amid Floods and Forced Evictions

Gender-Based Violence in Mathare Amid Floods and Forced Evictions

Nairobi, Kenya  •  July 2025

About this report  

In this report, we examine the increase in gender-based violence (GBV) in Mathare following the April–May 2024 floods and forced evictions. The research, conducted using participatory action research methods reveals that 60% of respondents believe GBV is rising, with one in five experiencing or witnessing it directly. We link this surge to government-driven demolitions and displacement, economic hardship, destruction of sanitation facilities, increased drug use, and overall insecurity exacerbated by the government’s violent response. We highlight that GBV cases are underreported due to stigma and ineffective police desks, and that the community’s understanding of GBV is limited. We conclude with recommendations for community-led interventions such as education, mental health support, addressing drug abuse, engaging local leaders, and promoting community policing, alongside demands for government accountability, compensation for displaced residents, provision of essential services, and protection of the community.

Research by

Lead researchers: Gathanga Ndung’u and Jennifer Omae

Community researchers: Ann Nyambura, Anthony Muoki, Benta Mutheu Immanuel, Mbatha Munya, Muchangi Nyagah, Rahma Wako, Sadia Bulle, Sarah Wangari, Selah Omuka, Simon ‘Sankara’ Muthiani, Veronicah Gathoni, Wanjau Wanja, and Winnie Achieng

Quantitative analysis: Daniel Krugman 

Editing, curation & design by

Brock Hicks

Acknowledgements

As the Mathare Community and the Mathare Social Justice Centre, we say asanteni sana (thank you very much) to the friends who made this research possible. We also say asanteni to all partners, friends, comrades, families and community members who helped in one way or another during the devastating April 2024 floods. For the people of Mathare, overcoming the devastation and despair created by the floods and the evictions was a collective effort outside government institutions and support structures. To the communities living along the river, the crisis created by the evictions was a near-death, cataclysmic experience facilitated and exacerbated by the government. Through our shared sense of Utu, Ubuntu and Ujamaa, we have collectively overcome our micro-reset this year. For this, we are truly grateful for your support. Finally, asanteni sana to Wangui Kamari, Arnav Kapur, Luminate, and Daniel Krugman. 

I am because we are — forward with solidarity!

Message from the People of Mathare

We undertook this research to understand gender-based violence in our community and its enabling ecosystem. While not a panacea to our many interwoven challenges, it is an important step towards untangling the cultural and political forces that put our people at risk, especially women and girls. Only by better understanding our challenges can we develop community-led interventions and demands for our elected government that are both humane and responsive to our urgent needs and long-term aspirations.

First, the Covid-19 emergency and now the cataclysmic floods reaffirmed our skepticism of government interventions in our community and in vulnerable communities across Kenya. During a time of great humanitarian need in Mathare, our elected leaders saw an opportunity to enrich themselves, abandoning their sworn duty to represent and protect us. Their response was corrupt and cynically opportunist, exploiting environmental regulations meant to protect us, not displace us and further push us to the margins. 

Amid our despair and urgent need for aid, our government chose profiteering and land grabbing. They chose once again to tell us that we do not matter to them. Not only were they ill-prepared and incompetent but lacked the empathy that lies at the heart of what it means to be human. We call on Kenyans and the world to witness how their inhumanity dehumanises us all. Their arrogant, opportunistic response to disaster, through violent evictions, massive unplanned demolitions, and profound failure to provide aid or a humane recovery plan, exposed themselves as unfit for their jobs. Our government conceded to us and the world that they have no plans to protect us now or in the future. It remains wholly disconnected from the struggles of its hustler citizens who brought them to power. They will never give us our rights or our land — we must take them.

We will take collective action to provide for ourselves where they have failed. For this reason, this research project is aptly timed to learn from local knowledge and arm us with evidence to inform community interventions that serve our urgent needs, in particular the most vulnerable groups like women, youth and people living with disabilities. We will prepare for future disasters by forming a holistic response that not only addresses material needs but also mental health, drug abuse, and GBV. By undertaking this research ourselves, we will better be able to self-organize, arming disaster responses from below that meet all residents’ needs and creating a more resilient community.

GBV-report-MSJC-2025-v3-final-July-14-2025Download THE FULL REPORT HERE
WATCH THE GBV REPORT-MAU MAU 2024 DOCUMENTARY HERE
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anti-capitalism Dhobi Women Network GBV Campaign Organic Intellectuals Network

Dhobi Women’s Table Banking

Last week, I had the chance to sit with the Dhobi Women Network/Domestic Workers Network Mathare, as they had a meeting for their table banking practices. This was the Tujikomboe Group; tujikomboe means liberating ourselves.

The group is composed of women who are domestic workers from Mathare but work in Eastleigh. Because of their work, the first point of convergence for these women was not the table banking, but they came together to form a support group in the face of the different violations and exploitation they were undergoing in their work environment, such as rape, assault and not being compensated after work. There are also many cases of their colleagues being killed in the work space.

This Network mobilizes domestic workers to offer each other solidarity. When they are together, they take collective action, advocate for fair labor practices, equitable wages and dignified working conditions. They also educate each other about their rights, so as to enhance their protection from exploitation in their work places.

Dhobi women, like most women in low income areas, also face numerous challenges. For example, they have limited access to formal financial systems and also face gender-based inequalities that restrict their economic independence. Because working as a casual labourer or a domestic worker means engaging in low-wage, unstable and informal employment, these women are often excluded from formal banking services due to a lack of formal identity documents, their irregular income, and other barriers. However, the Network has come up with an innovative solution to their financial struggles: this is a local version of table banking. This practice of community-based savings and lending has proven to be a lifeline, providing economic empowerment and stability to women domestic workers living in Mathare. From a revolving fund of as low as 3500 KES, the Network has been able to grow their savings to 51,000 KES, and have the goals of saving half a million by the end of the year, and buying a washing machine for their collective projects.

How The Network’s Table Banking Works

Table banking is a financial model where a group of people come together to save small amounts of money regularly, and then provide loans to each other at affordable interest rates. The practice is often organized informally within communities, and no formal banking institution is involved. Members of the group contribute whatever amounts they have as shares or savings, and also a booster amount of their liking, and then they are allowed to borrow from the pooled funds, which in this case is called the revolving fund, with the understanding that they will repay the loan within a set period and usually with a very low interest rate compared to formal financial institutions. If the period lapses and you don’t have the whole amount, you can just pay the interest fee and retain the loan, which you will then pay with light interest at the end of the month. Without a doubt, this gives woman domestic workers some level of financial dignity.

The most outstanding thing about the Dhobi Women’s Network is that they not only use this platform to meet their financial needs, but also use it to advance their agenda as domestic workers; it is a support group as well as a site to educate each other.

The savings accumulated through this process can serve as a safety net for emergencies, such as medical expenses or sudden family crises. Additionally, the ability to borrow at low interest rates enables women to invest in income-generating activities, whether it’s starting a small business, buying tools for their park and their work, or paying school fees. Table banking is then a tool for financial independence, since women are able to break the cycle of poverty and increase their economic self-sufficiency

Enhancing Social Justice Through Table Banking

The Network’s table banking has fostered a strong sense of community. For women who often face isolation and marginalization, groups like the Network provide a space for solidarity, collaboration, and mutual support. The relationships built through these groups allows for the sharing of knowledge, shared emotional support, and empowerment of each other both personally and professionally.

Across Mathare, the table banking groups often hold regular meetings that act as platforms for discussing issues affecting them and the larger community. These meetings give women a voice in decision-making processes, both within the group and in their wider community. This sense of agency is crucial for challenging the social norms and barriers that often restrict women, and gives the women back their dignity.

Sadia Bulle or Stellah Omuka, who are domestic workers in the Network, do not need a ton of documentation, credit history or a steady income to access a loan. Since the groups are based on trust, members are not required to provide formal identification or meet rigid financial criteria, as Tina Mfanga puts in her book, Wamachinga Na Haki Jiji Nchini Tanzania, where she speaks about the foundations that characterize cooperative movements

Overcoming NGOization through Socio-Economic Activities

In the Breaking the Silence on NGOs in Africa, a reflection by the Kenya Organic Intellectuals Network, I reflect on how NGOs reduce grassroots community organizers, such as myself,  to data collectors and mobilizers in their community for stipends at the end of the month. This then alienates these workers from the masses and the real work of organizing their community from the oppressive forms that are creating the different issues that they are documenting. It also creates a situation where community members have to be paid stipends to attend community meetings.

Instead, the table banking method provides an alternative way of organizing and community self-funding. Women meet, do their contributions, take loans, then also discuss their issues as a Network or within their community.

Conclusion

Table banking is becoming an invaluable tool in community empowerment, and more so for women participants. It provides them with access to savings, credit, and a supportive social network that helps them overcome economic hardships and build a better future. Although challenges exist, the benefits of table banking in promoting financial independence, community solidarity, and social economic empowerment cannot be overstated. As a grassroots social economic activity, it is a critical step towards reducing poverty and promoting dignified living in the informal economy. By continuing to support and expand such initiatives, we can ensure that more community organizers will have the independence to become their own agency, slowly by slowly in their own communities.

By Njeri Mwangi (Membership and Campaigns Coordinator at MSJC and member of the Kenya Organic Intellectuals Network)

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Campaign Against Drugs & Crime Dada Talks GBV Campaign Women in Social Justice Centres

Women’s Football Against Gender Based Violence

Women Against Gender Based Violence is an initiative of the SGBV Campaign at Mathare Social Justice Centre (MSJC), in collaboration with grassroots organizations’ advocating against gender based violence and drugs and crime in Mathare. Mathare is one of the largest informal settlements in Nairobi, with almost 300,000 inhabitants in population, the majority of whom are youth. The rate of gender based violence related cases has been growing in the post-covid period.

Kenya has undergone slow progress in realizing an end to gender based violence and inequalities. However, the process has witnessed obstacles and hurdles due to the societal differences that exist within our various communities. Most of the informal settlements in Nairobi are prone to social injustices and gender related violence, which is intricately connected to the social factors at play.

The majority of the population in Mathare lives under the constant challenge of poverty, thus making them prone to abuse and exploitation. Mathare Social Justice Centre (MSJC) has documented and championed for social justice against sexual violence and other human rights abuses such as rape, domestic violence and defilement. Most of the violations happen from the normalization of the violence within the community, and the exposure of children and young people to the harsh environment has contributed to the increasing rates of gender based violence within Mathare.

On Thursday August 17th, 2023, the “End Gender Based Violences and Sexual Harassment Tournament” was aimed at creating a platform for interaction, exchange and advocacy against the culture of the normalization of gender based injustices. The initiative was inspired by the need to interlink social injustices to all spheres affecting women including their livelihoods and empowerment. Therefore we must prioritise the creation of safe spaces and an environment for the people. The tournament brought various individuals and organizations, which permitted a rich opportunity for robust discussions, healing and advancing to the next step towards realizing an end to gender based violence in Mathare.

The tournament targeted the young mothers who mostly got pregnant at a tender teenage period. Some of whom are referred to as MSJC teen moms. Other objectives of the tournament included the generation of mechanisms to influence policy. Gender based violence cases seem to take a longer period to be processed or acted upon. Members of the community, on the other end, fail to understand or know the what to do when faced with cases of this nature. Therefore, it was important to create awareness of the existing policies, and enable an environment to discuss the challenges in addressing these grave situations. The tournament was held at the Austin Grounds in Mathare with various teams and participants from the Mathare community. It was a collaboration of the Mathare Social Justice Centre (MSJC) and the Coalition of Grassroots Human Rights Defenders. Other centres and committees present included the Githurai Social Justice Centre, Kasarani Social Justice Centre and the Ecological Justice Movement.

MSJC teen moms is a support group comprising of young women aged between 13yrs – 19yrs in Mathare. The team’s works towards community transformation, and fighting the systemic violence against women and young girls in Mathare. They also want to find practical means of sustaining themselves through art for social justice. The group is roughly 30 teenage moms from Mathare, who are actively engaged in community initiatives.

On, Thursday, August 17th, 2023, the MSJC teenage moms support group held a match against the CGHRD young mothers in the “End Gender Based Violence & Sexual Harassment Tournament.” Recently, there has been an observable rise in the number of cases of sexual and gender based violence against teenagers aged between 15-19 years. Most of the cases are perpetrated people close to the victims. From family members to friends, and people they know. After the crude encounter with the injustice, most victims tend to isolate themselves from the community and general reality.

The tournament’s main objective was to create awareness on the
fight towards ending these kinds of violences in Mathare as a whole. It also served as a psychosocial support extension for teen moms. The tournament was well attended by the members of the community, and especially men who were the target. After the
tournament, we had an interactive dialogue on the same theme that involved different actors and members of the community. The forum’s purpose was to stir a discussion on the way forward and the next action points. It was also meant to instigate a debate and offer a platform for community assessment and deliberation on issues related to gender relations and the increased rate of gender violence.

As a guide to the action plan, the participants proposed the following:

  1. Organizing monthly football tournaments to create awareness and intensify advocacy against gender based violence.
  2. Consistent documentation and referral of gender based violences. This needs an active gender based violence desk in specific zones, and during the tournaments.
  3. Collective design of mechanisms to promote psychosocial support among victims and survivors of gender based violence.
  4. Adopt creative modes like art, sports and theatre to sensitize and advocate against gender based violence.
  5. Consistent reflection, analysis and proposal of relevant policy.
  6. The creation of a collective framework in the fight against gender based violence.
  7. A campaign on drugs and crime in Mathare and other informal settlements.

More pictures from the tournament are below:

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