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An emotional testimony by a survivor of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) set the stage for the official unveiling of a bold new strategy by the Centre for Rights Education and Awareness, as the women’s rights organization launched an ambitious five-year roadmap aimed at strengthening justice, economic empowerment, survivor support and dignity for women and girls across Kenya.
Before the formal launch of the organization’s 2026–2030 Strategic Plan, participants listened in silence as Ruth, a survivor of GBV and beneficiary of CREAW-supported economic empowerment programmes, narrated how years of domestic violence, abandonment and poverty nearly shattered her life before intervention by CREAW helped her rebuild confidence, livelihood and hope.
Standing before women leaders, activists, partners and survivors, Ruth explained that there was a time in her life when violence had become normal, pain had become routine and the future looked increasingly uncertain.
“I reached a point where I told myself I no longer wanted to continue living a life of beatings and suffering in marriage,” she said, recalling the difficult decision she made after years of abuse.
According to Ruth, when the violence became unbearable, she sought help from local authorities, hoping intervention would bring stability to her family. However, upon returning home, she encountered an entirely different reality.
“When I went to seek help and later returned home, I found he had already left. He disappeared and left me with the children,” she said.
Suddenly, Ruth found herself alone, emotionally exhausted and carrying the responsibility of raising children without income or reliable support.
At the time, survival itself had become a struggle.
She narrated how her family depended heavily on school feeding programmes, with meals received by children at school often becoming what sustained the household.
“Sometimes the children depended on feeding programmes at school, and that became what helped us survive because there was nothing else,” she recalled.
Yet beyond the violence and abandonment came another painful reality often experienced by survivors of domestic abuse — economic vulnerability.
Without stable employment or savings, Ruth said she survived through casual labour, washing clothes for neighbours and taking any available work simply to feed her family.
It was during this difficult season, she explained, that CREAW came into her life.
The organization introduced her to counselling and psychosocial support, helping her begin the difficult process of emotional recovery while also restoring confidence in herself.
“At CREAW, I was counselled and taught something that stayed with me — solution ni mimi,” she said. “I realised I had to become part of the solution to my own life.”
The counselling sessions, women empowerment programmes and continuous mentorship gradually helped her begin seeing herself not as a victim trapped by circumstances but as a woman capable of rebuilding.
When the COVID-19 pandemic later disrupted livelihoods and informal jobs disappeared, life became even harder. However, Ruth explained that support systems linked to women survivors, together with guidance and encouragement received through CREAW, helped her rethink survival and economic independence.
She narrated how emergency financial support she received during the pandemic enabled her to start small-scale food vending, cooking githeri and making mandazi for sale within the neighbourhood before later venturing into selling eggs using a trolley.
“At first, I joined business because of hunger,” she said, explaining that survival, rather than ambition, had pushed her into entrepreneurship.
But through entrepreneurship training, counselling and financial literacy programmes linked to CREAW and opportunities under the Jasiri initiative, Ruth says she slowly transformed what began as survival into business growth.
She later accessed grants and mentorship opportunities that enabled her to expand her hustle into a small hotel business at Toi Market.
“Later I learned business, saving and how to believe in myself again,” she said proudly. “Today, I can confidently say, I am a Jasiri woman. Nashukuru sana.”
Her testimony, deeply personal and emotional, became more than a story of hardship. It offered a human face to the broader mission of CREAW and the ambitions contained in the organization’s newly launched strategic roadmap, which seeks to ensure women and girls not only survive violence but access psychosocial support, justice, economic opportunities and systems capable of restoring dignity.
It was against this backdrop that Wangechi Wachira, the Executive Director for CREW formally unveiled CREAW’s Strategic Plan for 2026–2030, describing the moment as both reflective and transformative for an organization that has spent more than two decades championing women’s rights and confronting structural inequalities.
“Twenty-six years is not just 26 years,” Wachira said, reminding participants that institutions, like people, evolve through learning, reflection and adaptation.
“What a beautiful moment to see so many happy faces in this room, to see people who have walked with us through such a journey to where CREAW Kenya is today,” she added.
Wachira explained that while the organization was celebrating 26 years of existence, the gathering was ultimately about the future and CREAW’s dream for the next five years.
Borrowing from an African proverb that says it takes a whole village to raise a child, she said many “villages” had contributed to the organization’s growth and helped shape the newly launched strategy.
“This strategy was not developed by the CREAW Kenya team alone,” she emphasized, explaining that consultations, validation meetings and conversations involving women, grassroots organizations, government institutions, civil society actors and development partners had informed the plan to ensure it reflected the lived realities of women and girls in Kenya.
According to the strategic document, CREAW’s vision over the next five years is to help build “a just society where women and girls are valued, respected and enjoy full rights and live in dignity,” while its mission focuses on transforming the lives of women and girls through championing gender equality. The strategy says the organization’s work will remain grounded in values of integrity, professionalism, respect, trust and collaboration, guided by an underlying principle of care and accountability referred to simply as “love.”
Founded in 1999, CREAW describes itself as a feminist women’s rights organization working to advance gender equality through survivor-centred, rights-based and intersectional approaches that challenge structural discrimination, harmful social norms and barriers affecting women and girls. The organization combines advocacy, legal aid, psychosocial support, strategic litigation, community mobilization, movement building and policy engagement in its work.
At the centre of the newly launched strategy is an ambitious target of reaching 1.5 million women and girls by 2030, ensuring they live safer, healthier and more empowered lives free from violence and discrimination while enjoying opportunities to participate meaningfully in economic, political and social spaces.
The organization identifies violence against women and girls as one of Kenya’s most urgent human rights crises, noting that despite progressive legal frameworks, women continue experiencing intimate partner violence, sexual violence, femicide, child marriage, harmful practices and technology-facilitated abuse. According to figures cited in the strategy, more than 7,100 cases of violence against women and girls had been documented nationally by early 2025, while nearly 100 women were reportedly killed within four months. Data referenced by the strategy further shows that about 20 per cent of women have experienced intimate partner violence, while some counties report physical violence levels as high as 34 per cent among women since the age of 15.
The organization says its new approach will strengthen survivor-centred services, legal aid, psychosocial support, referral systems, institutional accountability and community interventions aimed at preventing violence before it occurs while addressing harmful norms that sustain abuse.
Economic justice forms another major pillar of the strategy, with CREAW arguing that many women remain trapped in poverty because of barriers including limited access to land ownership, financing, productive assets, dignified employment and markets despite contributing substantially to Kenya’s economy and household resilience.
Through entrepreneurship training, financial literacy, grants, concessionary loans, mentorship and market linkages, CREAW says it intends to strengthen women’s financial resilience and economic independence while also challenging cultural norms that discourage women’s participation in economic systems.
With a knack for captivating storytelling, Amos Lumbasi has a talent for crafting narratives that resonate with readers. He combines meticulous research with a captivating writing style to create articles that are both informative and enjoyable to read.