Storytelling for change in health systems and SRHR policy advocacy

My role at the Make Way Partnership is very dear to me because it ensures that I advocate for youth in my community in a global context. Make Way has provided a platform for me to learn about global health systems, driving meaningful youth engagement and advocacy activism. It has provided me with a platform where I can not only connect with other youth in Africa and overseas with whom we share a common vision of change, especially in the health sector, but it has also provided a platform where I can both learn and advocate for youth in Kenya and Africa.

I am passionate about advocating for the creation of health and social systems that work in Africa, especially for youth and women in Kenya. I grew up in rural Kenya, where accessing health services at the local dispensary was challenging because it was unaffordable and underresourced; sexual and reproductive health and rights were almost non-existent because of existing cultural taboos in my community that prohibited speaking about sexual and reproductive health and rights. As a young girl, I realized that the system was broken; it marginalized poor rural people and afforded the best care to rich urban people. This drives my passion to advocate for equal access to affordable and quality healthcare in Africa. SRHR is hugely ignored in Africa, even with the devastating statistics that compel us to address the crisis that is the lack of SRHR Information in our communities. According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics survey in 2022, reported that 15% of girls in Kenya had teenage pregnancies, and about 16% experienced gender-based violence.

The patriarchal system in Kenya contributes to adolescent girls’ and young women’s challenges. I am driven to advocate for the challenges that girls and women face in Kenya through the Chini Ya Mbuyu Podcast that Akili Dada hosts. I design conversations that bring young women’s challenges to light, such as unequal access to sexual reproductive health and rights, gender-based violence, early marriage, and female genital mutilation. The voices of young women and girls in Kenya are often silenced; they are not represented in the mainstream media, and when they are; our stories are often misinterpreted. My drive for the podcast is to provide a safe platform for women and girls to express themselves freely, address their issues, and co-create solutions for their challenges. One project I was working on early this year is raising awareness around period poverty and period shame in Kenya as a campaign around Menstrual Hygiene Day on the 28th of May in 2023. I hope that through my advocacy; and the overall power of the women’s rights movement in Kenya, we can achieve gender equality and, ultimately, social change and shift our oppressive cultures.

The Chini Ya Mbuyu Podcast is a Feminist movement-building platform created by young women, whose mission is not only to advance Feminist principles in all areas of leadership but also to advance narratives that allow young women and girls across the continent to rise to leadership positions and occupy space.