News: A heroine for Women's Rights in Kenya

Defending Women in Kenya
Inspiring story of a Human Rights lawyer and advocate in Kenya.
"..When violence erupted after Kenya's flawed 2007 general election, leaving over a thousand people dead and hundreds of thousands displaced, Ann and her team sprung into action... Her organization documented the sexual and gender-based violence experienced by women in the post-election violence. That documentation assisted a commission that investigated the violence, and is now being used by the International Criminal Court.

One of Ann's goals is a changed constitution - one that guarantees equal rights for everyone, regardless of gender, class or ethnicity. She believes the free-flow of information is essential for this to happen.

Therefore, Ann's organization has set up a radio station, Safari Africa. She hopes it will be one of 210 community-based radio stations - one for each of Kenya's constituencies. By helping Kenyans generate their own media and discuss topics important to them, Ann hopes to encourage peoples' participation in governance. Providing people with information, Ann believes, is necessary to help people shake off oppression, and help them make strong decisions for themselves, their communities, and Kenya. Ann's team is also taking on other controversial issues through the radio venture. In a single day recently, the station's website covered issues that stir passionate debates in East Africa, such as the rights of homosexuals, government corruption, judicial failure, and police abuse of sex workers.

All her activism comes with a price. Ann has been arrested and brutally beaten at peaceful protests, sexually assaulted by the police, and threatened by politicians. Staff members at her organization are constantly concerned about her -- and their -- security