"Africa: Stop railroading women" 4 February 2022

[...] This rapidly expanding commercial and tourism centre has a population of 60,000. On its outskirts, a modern glass and steel structure rises from the land. Voi railway station is one of many along the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway, built and financed by China. [...] The project has brought unique challenges for local women. They were often excluded from consultation during its design and implementation which led to gender-specific needs not being taken into account. 

Monitoring, much less mitigating, any adverse gender-specific impacts of the line was entirely missed out of the environmental and social impact assessments by the Kenyan-Chinese consortium. 

Upheavals such as job losses and disruption to schools particularly affect women and girls, yet the women I met were resilient and creative in tackling these challenges.

Compulsory government acquisition of land for the railway was a contentious issue. Nyota is a singer who is famous in Kenya. She remembers the day the Kenyan National Land Commission showed up at her home in Voi to measure it. Having raised her children as a single mother, she struggled with her finances before her singing career took off. ‘I slowly saved the money to buy the land and build my home, brick by brick,’ she said. ‘When they came to take my home, I became so scared since there is no transparency or controls in the process.’ 

She had good reason to be fearful. The commission, which managed the land acquisition process, has been caught up in a string of corruption scandals. 

Women across Africa have particular reliance on land for social and economic security, according to Transparency International. With land title ownership predominantly in male hands and with corruption in the compulsory purchase system, women are often excluded from land negotiations and are less likely to receive proper compensation for land acquired by external parties. 

The value of embedding gender into the design and delivery of infrastructure projects can be demonstrated by women’s resilience and strength when they find themselves facing threats to their livelihoods, families and communities. Kenyan women like Harriet find themselves stepping into leadership roles to mobilize their communities to campaign for change to the policies that harm their local economies. [...]