EAC Urges Women to Fight Corruption

From New Vision Online:

WOMEN rights activists from the member states of the East African Community (EAC) have been urged to fight corruption as the states move towards a political federation.

The EAC deputy secretary general, Beatrice Kiraso, made the call on Thursday during a gender development conference at Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala. “Society these days glorifies corruption but as women rights activists, you should fight the vice,” Kiraso told women delegates from Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.

She also challenged women to fight corruption by prevailing upon their husbands, who might be involved in corruption scandals to amass wealth. The women demanded the EAC states to develop a protocol on gender and development. Deborah Okumu, a board member of the Eastern African Sub-Regional Support Initiative for Advancement of Women, said such a protocol would bring together womens’ rights instruments signed over the years in one regional document, which would be signed and agreed upon at the highest level.

The women also criticised the EAC peace and security protocol, saying it was militaristic. They also added that the protocal was not people- centred. They called upon EAC governments to ratify the protocol on the rights of women in Africa. “This protocol must be ratified immediately in line with the commitments the governments have made to women’s rights at the global and African union level,” Okumu said.