Women with disabilities' participation during Kenya's CEDAW Review
Compiled by Jackline Bartenge, Women Challenged to Challenge
The 93rd Session of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), held in Geneva, provided an important opportunity to assess Kenya’s progress in fulfilling its obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
The review brought together the Government of Kenya, civil society organisations including Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) to examine progress, identify gaps and highlight areas requiring further action to advance women’s rights.
The International Disability Alliance (IDA) supported the physical participation of a delegation representing the United Disabled Persons of Kenya (UDPK), Women Challenged to Challenge (WCC) and The Kenya Network of Women and Girls with Disabilities. This participation ensured that our lived experiences and priorities as women with disabilities was reflected in the review. It also provided an opportunity to connect grassroots and national-level advocacy with international human rights accountability mechanisms. For organisations of women with disabilities, participation in such spaces is particularly important as it helps bring attention to the barriers women and girls with disabilities continue to face and reinforces the need to translate commitments into tangible improvements in their lives.
Bringing Grassroots Voices to the Global Stage
One of the significant moments during the opening session was the opportunity for Millicent Juma, a woman with disability who supports Women Challenged to Challenge’s work at the grassroots in Siaya County to deliver a two-minute civil society statement. Her contribution brought community experiences into an international human rights space, highlighting inaccessible health services, the persistent gap between legislation and implementation, the need to enact outstanding legislation and the importance of ensuring that women with disabilities participate meaningfully in decision-making.
The experience reinforced an important principle: women with disabilities must not only be represented in discussions about their rights but must also have opportunities to speak for themselves and influence decisions that affect their lives.
Key issues the team raised
The civil society statement highlighted several areas requiring urgent government attention to ensure that the rights of women and girls with disabilities are respected, protected and fulfilled.
Lack of Disability-Disaggregated Data: Kenya does not systematically collect and disaggregate data by sex, age and disability across sectors. This limits the availability of evidence needed to understand the experiences of women and girls with disabilities, inform inclusive policies and measure progress in implementing their rights. Systematic collection and analysis of disability-disaggregated data are essential for ensuring that government planning, resource allocation and service delivery respond to their needs.
Gender-Based Violence and Access to Justice: The statement cited official data from 2022 indicating that women and girls with disabilities experience gender-based violence at rates up to 2.5 times higher than other women. Despite this heightened risk, mechanisms for reporting violence remain inaccessible and procedural accommodation guidelines are yet to be developed. These barriers prevent women and girls with disabilities from reporting abuse, accessing justice and obtaining appropriate support. Addressing these challenges requires accessible reporting mechanisms, appropriate procedural accommodations and more responsive justice systems.
Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights: The 2024 National Disability Policy acknowledges that reproductive health services remain inaccessible to women and girls with disabilities. The statement further highlighted concerns about the lack of accessible information to support free and informed consent, as well as forced sterilization and other medical procedures affecting women and girls with disabilities. It called on the government to fund the Disability Mainstreaming Policy in the health sector to strengthen the capacity of health personnel. Ensuring access to inclusive, accessible and rights-based healthcare is essential to protecting bodily autonomy and enabling women and girls with disabilities to make informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive health.
Barriers to Inclusive Education: Although Section 20 of the Persons with Disabilities Act, 2025, promotes inclusive education, the statement highlighted the absence of subsequent action to realize this commitment. Girls with disabilities continue to encounter stigma, gender stereotypes and cultural norms that restrict their educational opportunities. The ongoing reform of the Basic Education Act presents an opportunity to strengthen the legal framework for inclusive education and explicitly protect the right of girls with disabilities to access quality education on an equal basis with others.
Political Participation and Representation: The statement also highlighted the continued exclusion of women with disabilities from meaningful political participation and although Article 100 of the Constitution of Kenya provides for legislation to promote the representation of persons with disabilities in Parliament, and the 2024 National Disability Policy envisaged a 5% quota, women with disabilities continue to face barriers to political representation.
Further, the absence of detailed requirements for political parties to ensure their participation limits opportunities for women with disabilities to influence political processes and decision-making. Addressing these gaps requires practical measures that move beyond policy commitments to ensure meaningful participation and representation.
What Else Happened During the Engagement?
There was also a private briefing which provided an opportunity to share recommendations and highlight issues requiring further attention. However, the experience demonstrated that disability inclusion still requires more deliberate attention, as some Committee members did not raise specific questions or make recommendations on women with disabilities. Government responses on disability inclusion also lacked sufficient detail and concrete information to demonstrate progress in addressing the barriers raised.
IDA further facilitated meetings with Stefan Tromel, a senior disability specialist at the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva and a representative from the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). These engagements provided opportunities to learn about their work, discuss disability-related concerns in Kenya and explore potential areas for continued collaboration.
What Needs to Change?
The participation of relevant technical officers from government departments responsible for gender and disability inclusion in future CEDAW reviews could help ensure that questions are addressed with the necessary expertise and that recommendations are linked to practical implementation measures. There is also a need for sustained follow-up on the issues raised, including improved disability-disaggregated data, accessible health and justice services, inclusive education and meaningful political participation.
For OPDs, the work does not end with submitting statements or participating in international reviews. Continued engagement with government institutions and other duty bearers is necessary to monitor progress, advocate for implementation and ensure that women and girls with disabilities are not overlooked in broader gender equality initiatives.
The Work Continues Beyond Geneva
A key takeaway from Kenya’s CEDAW review is that disability inclusion requires sustained attention, deliberate action and accountability. Organizations of persons with disabilities continue to play a critical role in ensuring that the experiences and rights of women and girls with disabilities are recognized within gender equality discussions and human rights processes. And while progress may be slow, continued advocacy, collaboration and the meaningful participation of women with disabilities remain essential to advancing change.
The review provided an important platform to raise concerns and call for action and its lasting value will depend on whether the issues highlighted inform the Committee’s recommendations and translate into concrete measures by the Government of Kenya.
Compiled by Jackline Bartenge, Women Challenged to Challenge
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