“To effectively serve our community, we need to organise.”
Junia on participatory justice in Nairobi’s informal settlements
Junia is a human rights defender and youth activist from Nairobi. For the past eight years, he has worked to challenge sexual and gender-based violence, police brutality, and the marginalisation of young people by the authorities. Trained in the prevention of and response to gender-based violence, Junia is a founder of the Kibera Social Justice Centre, and a current Scottish Human Rights Defender Fellow at Dundee University. We were pleased to interview him when he visited London in December 2022.
Hello Junia, can you tell us a little about yourself and your human rights work?
I am human rights activist and women’s rights defender working in one of Nairobi’s largest informal settlement - Kibera. I have been championing human rights since 2014, when I began fighting for justice for a seven-year-old girl who had been defiled. I realized that many in my community were uninformed on their human rights and had normalized injustice and abuse. There was a huge gap in level of civic education knowledge and advocacy skills within my community members and as a result, the abuses they faced went unpunished. For these reasons, I was inspired to become a leader, to condemn injustice and to champion human rights.
I saw that to effectively serve our community, we needed to organise: to plan, monitor, implement, document and evaluate. So together with other like-minded human rights defenders I founded a grassroots human rights center based within Kibera – KIBERA SOCIAL JUSTICE CENTER.
Can you tell us about discrimination in Kenya?
Inequality is perpetuated especially on the basis of gender and age in Kenya. Women are still experiencing unfair treatment because of their gender - their rights are regularly violated; there is low or no inclusion of women in the political, social or economic spaces; and different forms of sexual harassment are widespread. Also, in Kenya, young people make up 70% of the entire population, but face marginalization from the government and authorities. We see that young people are denied opportunities by the government where they can effectively be productive to improve their livelihood. It’s reported that 90% of Kenyan youth are unemployed. We also see the youth harassed, criminalised, and killed by the police with impunity.
What is it like being a human rights defender in Kenya?
Human rights defenders in Kenya are exposed to many different risks and threats for the simple reasons of being a human rights defender. Personally, I have been arrested by the police, and was threatened by a senior person in authority because of pursuing certain human rights work related to sexual and gender-based violence. With the worsening human rights condition due to the shrinking civic space, human rights defenders haveundergone terrible experiences like assault, defamation and attacks. All this persecution from both the authorities and a vocal minority of community members, demoralizes our dream to strive for justice.
Can you tell us about working with PBI and Dundee University?
I got to learn about PBI in 2020, and since they have been very instrumental in supporting our work in pursuing human rights through capacitation programs and networking. This is imperative for our work as we get to be equipped with relevant skills and knowledge needed for our work. The network and partnerships created enable us to gain solidarity, strength, and visibility.
I am excited to participate in the fellowship programme at Dundee University which is being supported by the Scottish government. I am proud to be the first human rights defender to be nominated by PBI and the first to attend the fellowship coming from my region of East and Central Africa.
The fellowship provides respite for human rights defenders who are working in harsh environments, and assists us human rights defenders in showcasing and improving our advocacy skills to further our activism. I have been involved in lobbying the Scottish government and have had several meetings with the United Kingdom to influence both governments to push for certain human rights challenges experienced in my country to be addressed. I am also researching advocacy best practice, and identifying safe methods of lobbying.
PBI are standing with women’s rights defenders in Kenya. If you’d like to find out more, check out the film below. To join in supporting them, visit our Donate page.
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