Small Loans for Men Will Keep Violence Against Women Down
Micro-credit facilities for men could emerge as a powerful tool to check the alarming increase in cases of violence against women in Kenya. Experts say that with easy access to small loans for income generating activities, men would have less time on their hands to be abusive.
Violence against women has been on the increase in this East African nation. An estimated 2 800 rape cases were reported in 2004, according to the police. This was 500 times more than the figure reported in 2003.
Jennifer Riria, chief executive of the internationally-known Kenya Women Finance Trust (KWFT), is pushing to expand micro-credit services to include men.
She says: “There needs to be micro-credit services [for men], to make them engage in development projects. This will also address the question of violence and irresponsibility on the part of men.”
According to findings by KWFT, men have become even more indifferent, abandoning their duties when their spouses became financially independent.
“By empowering women financially, their gender roles have increased,” she laments.
“They are the ones taking children to school, caring for the cows, the household budget, paying bills — everything.”
Spouses need to be brought into the micro-credit service sector, Riria urges.
“We need a micro-credit facility where poor men can access money. This is the only way we can beat poverty; when both men and women collaborate to fight it,”.
Even the KWFT has only addressed the financial needs of women. Established about two decades ago, it currently provides loans to about 80 000, mostly poor rural women. In 1997, 5 198 women were on its rolls.
The average loan size has been $459, enough to start small but successful businesses like chicken rearing, bee-keeping, and selling fish.
Run by a group of women professionals, KWFT disbursed $31-million in loans from January to September 2005. The organisation, now operating in seven of Kenya’s eight provinces, intends to increase the disbursement to $40-million in 2006.
With an outstanding portfolio of about $23-million, the group has grown to become the country’s largest micro-finance body, with poverty alleviation among women as its core principle.
“Micro-finance is the cutting edge in poverty alleviation. Women are confined to poverty all through, and it gets worse when they get older. It is for this reason that we strive to access credit to women,” Riria said.
According to the Association of Micro-Finance Institutions of Kenya (AMFI), an overwhelming majority of the country’s 30-million people cannot access services offered by the formal banks.
Micro-finance institutions cover less than 10% of those locked out by the formal banks.
But the sector is unregulated. Dubious organisations have taken advantage to con unsuspecting clients.
Early in November, the Kenya Akiba Micro-Finance was closed for collecting deposits, even though it was not licensed to do so. It also contravened the Banking Act by using the word “finance”.
“The absence of laws has inhibited growth. AMFI recognises that the market has to develop. The only way is to legislate new laws seeking to regulate this industry,” says Kimanthi Mutua, chairman of AMFI.
A proposed Micro-Finance Bill, experts say, will among other things, ensure that genuine institutions will provide affordable services to the country’s poor.
“[Now] we are not able to access affordable financing. The money we get from banks is expensive and therefore we have to pass on the costs to our clients. This is one of the factors that discourage our women from getting micro-credit,” Riria observed.
The Bill is currently awaiting Cabinet approval for publication, after which, it will be enacted by Parliament. – IPS