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  • Access to Legal Aid

Quick information guide

National, Regional and International legal frameworks have provisions on promoting access to justice for all:

  • The Constitution, 2010 has rafts of provisions, specifically Articles 10, 48, 50, 159 and 174.
  • The Government committed to provide state funded legal aid and education as conduits to enhancing access to justice.
  • Kenya developed a robust legal and policy framework aimed at promoting legal aid to expand access to justice to her citizens.
  • Existence of a Legal Aid National Action Plan 2017-2022 

Key Regional and International frameworks 

African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa

  • Article 8 (a,c and f) Women and men are equal before the law and shall have the right to equal protection and benefit of the law. The Charter obliges parties to pay particular attention to women's access to legal aid

Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women

  • Article 2(b and c) mandates state parties to adopt appropriate legislative and other measures, to prohibit discrimination against women;
  • Article 15(1 and 2) urges state parties to accord to women equality with men before the law;

Accessing Legal Aid in Kenya

In Kenya, legal aid has been offered by both state and non-state actors since independence in 1963. Non-state  is a  major  provider and until 2015 it operated  without  any  clear  legal,  institutional  and  coordination framework.

The enactment of the National Legal Aid and Awareness Policy, 2015 and the Legal Aid Act 2016, Kenya adopted a collaborative and systemic approach that brings together both state and non-state actors in the delivery of legal aid.

Through the National Legal Aid and Awareness Programme (NALEAP), the Government of Kenya has developed the National Legal Aid and Awareness Policy (NLAAP) which addresses issues pertaining to legal aid and access to justice in the country.

The National Legal Aid and Awareness Policy:

  1. emphasizes on the  need  to  ensure  the  right  to  legal  aid  as  a  constitutional  right; 
  2. recognizes  disparities  in  provision  of  legal  aid  and  provides  relevant  policy  directions; 
  3. ensures  multi-sectoral  approach  to  addressing  poor  provision  of  legal  aid  in  the  country;  and 
  4. ensures evidence-based planning and resource allocation.

More Information

angle-left RONA Foundation

RONA Foundation

About RONA

Match Maker Association Limited (MMA) mission is to empower emerging businesses in Tanzania to grow and increase impact.
Rona Foundation spear-headed the outlawing of ‘widow cleansing’ under Domestic Offences Bill in 2015 and developed a highly sort widows training manual based on the needs assessments which has enabled the model to be replicated in 12 counties in Kenya with various partners.
Along with LONA's creative programs, members conduct awareness and advocacy campaigns locally and internationally. They also do widow mentorship and life-skills training in an environment of creativity and introspection, which are critical to foster new perspectives as most rural widows are forgotten and left behind.

 

  1. Advocacy

Rona advocates for outlawing of harmful cultural practices meted on women when they lose their husbands, so that every widow feels protected by law from discrimination, violence and abuse, and can enjoy her full human rights as an equal and valuable member of society.

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Services provided

  1. Mjane Kwanza

Boldly attempts to address forgotten human rights and gender based concerns of rural widows in 2 selected counties in Kenya. Funded by Forumsyd and based on the desire to promote inclusion of marginalized minorities in gender and human rights spheres, it emphasizes the need for rights-holders to use innovative approaches to set their own agenda while promoting the human centered approach.

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  1. Orphan Education Care and Support

RONA’s focus is on health, nutrition and education which is inclusive of psycho-social support to Rural Orphans and Vulnerable children (OVC), both boys and girls, who are both infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS.

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  1. Inua Mjane Loan

Our widows empowerment Program is a periodically, nonformal education program that facilitates community-led development, economical and social progress to its members. Inua Mjane is a micro credit facility available to solidarity groups and/or individual widows to cover start up, and/or unforeseen business challenges. The loan is processed in less than 14 days after application.

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  1. Rona Matching Fund

Rona offers micro matching grants to active rural based widow groups. The groups use the fund(s) to start income generating projects, or boost their businesses either as individuals or group. The Matching Fund is aimed to support rural widow groups to embrace socio-economic activities, beyond rights. The fund range from 5,000/= to 25,000/=. The matching funds are sourced from partners, and friends of Rona.

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  1. Girls Lead

Girls Lead Program mentors 20 high potential rural girls in class 7 and 8 with tools and skills that will enable them compete with their urban counterparts, and open their world view. The selection criteria are academic performance and discipline. The program specifically targets the top performing, high potential disciplined girls in class 7 and 8, in Orengo and Uhendo primary school.

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  1. Share Her Story(SHE)

The project targets rural teen mums and young women. It’s aimed to give them better health and quality of life, including reduction in anger, depression and more knowledgeable with a structured support system. Since rural girls and young women remain marginalized, drop out of school, become teen mothers and/or turn to prostitution, their plight remain unseen, unspoken and often become victims of rape that go unreported and in many cases compromise their health and those of their children, in an endless circle of abuse, neglect, infections, HIV spread and eventually more deaths.

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  1. She Goat Project

In an effort to foster a spirit of self-reliance among the widows, Rona  launched the goats project in 2015. The pilot project was implemented through online fundraising.

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online presence

Articles:

Videos:

Blog:

Events that benefit women

 

Rona Festival

The popular annual Festival is a culmination of advocacy and awareness activities and bring together over 3000 participants amongst them stakeholders, widows and orphans, youth,church and community elders from far and wide. The stakeholder and advocacy is the most successful of all activities. Apart from drawing large crowds, they attract key leaders of the community including the Governor of Siaya county.

The event awards certificate of participation to winning groups and showcases talent for the youth and orphans who some have gotten sponsors from the event.

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Contacts

Rona Foundation
Email: info@ronafoundationco.ke
P.O. Box 55212-00200, Nairobi, Kenya
Tel.: +254 717 297420

or

Rona Orphans & Widows Centre
P.O. Box 631-40601, Bondo, Kenya