Companies challenged to hire more females

As the world marks International Women’s Day, organisations have been challenged to make deliberate efforts to include more women in the workplace as well as uphold their human, economic and labour rights.

Despite a steady rise in the amount of wealth that women control globally, Kenya and Africa in general are still lagging behind in promoting the economic capacity of women.

In a statement, the Kenya Women Teachers Association (Kewota) Secretary-General Benter Opande said although gradual progress is being made in areas of economic empowerment, the girl-child and women still remain at a great disadvantage.

Mr Opande noted that issues related to teenage pregnancy and maternal health remain a great challenge in some of Kenya’s rural communities.

“Owing to various health challenges, vulnerable individuals are at risk of diseases such as HIV and malaria as well as issues surrounding pregnancy and childbirth complications. The problems are driven, at least in part, by high incidence of poverty, rape and lack of mentoring for these girls,” he added.

Recent reports have indicated that Kenya seems to be lagging behind in achieving gender equality in essential services, particularly in maternal health, which is doing poorly as per global averages.

Despite investments made such as free maternity services, the country has high maternal mortality rates averaging 510 per 100,000 births compared to the African average of 438 and a global average of 107.

In addition to this, there are also high rates of teenage pregnancies, which have significantly affected school completion rate of young girls.
“We have resolved to put the issue of fighting teenage pregnancy at the top of our agenda. Through a programme that mentors girls and the distribution of educative pamphlets, we hope to reverse this trend,” Mr Opande said.

Speaking at a different forum, Google Kenya County Director Charles Murito said more organisations need to find ways through which they can close the gender inequality by recruiting and retaining more women.