From Crisis to Accountability: Moral Leadership, Gender-Based Violence Prevention, and Lessons from Rural Migori County, Kenya for an Age of Polycrisis

Kutisha Ebron; Anne  Ngunjiri; Anthony Andenoro

doi:10.65879/3070-6335.2026.02.04

Authors

Kutisha T. Ebron Southern New Hampshire University and Urban Health 360 Author https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4171-8911
Anne Ngunjiri LVCT Health Author
Anthony C. Andenoro Florida Atlantic University Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.65879/3070-6335.2026.02.04

Keywords:

Moral leadership, transformational leadership, gender-based violence, polycrisis, COVID-19, rural Kenya, Migori County, pregnant women, new mothers, women and girls, SDGs, policy accountability, compounding crises

Abstract

Before COVID-19, the World Bank (2019) reported that 35% of women globally experienced physical or sexual violence. The United Nations Development Programme (2020) documented a surge in gender-based violence (GBV) during the pandemic, with an estimated 15 million additional cases for every three months of lockdown. COVID-19 prevention measures, lockdowns, curfews, and school and business closures, exposed and deepened pre-existing fault lines across health systems, economies, and governance structures, disproportionately burdening women in rural communities with heightened unemployment, poverty, and diminished access to essential services.

This study examines the intersection of moral leadership, GBV prevention, and compounding crises in rural Migori County, Kenya, drawing on interviews with six policymakers and eighteen pregnant women or new mothers to assess how lockdowns and movement restrictions directly escalated GBV among vulnerable populations. The inclusion of pregnant women and new mothers centers the voices of those at greatest intersectional risk, navigating simultaneous health, economic, and safety precarity during crisis conditions. Findings reveal that entrenched gender norms normalize GBV and entrench inequality, while also illuminating accountability gaps in local and national policy responses. Situated within an era of polycrisis, where health emergencies, financial instability, and political fragility converge. This study advances a moral and transformational leadership framework for dismantling structural conditions that enable GBV. Lessons from Migori County offer transferable evidence for policymakers, practitioners, and scholars navigating the compounding crises of the present moment.

Author Biographies

Kutisha T. Ebron, Southern New Hampshire University and Urban Health 360

Dr. Kutisha Ebron is a scholar-practitioner and social inclusion expert with over 15 years of experience advancing equity and gender justice within the United Nations system. She served on the Secretariat for the United Nations Secretary-General's High-Level Panel on Women's Economic Empowerment and is a co-author of UN Women's policy paper on Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent (CDWD), the organization's first global policy paper addressing the rights of an estimated 270 million people affected by descent-based discrimination worldwide. Her portfolio spans global programming in ending violence against women, gender equality, Women, Peace & Security, and social and racial integration. Her research interrogates the intersections of diversity, equity, and inclusion; health; economic disparity; and gender-based violence.

Dr. Ebron currently serves as Adjunct Faculty Southern New Hampshire University, where she teaches ethics and leadership and is A Subject Matter Expert with Urban Health 360. She has also held Research Fellow appointments with the Women's Economic Imperative and Urban Health 360. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from Towson University, a Master of Science in Management, and a Ph.D. in Ethical Leadership from St. Thomas University.
Anne Ngunjiri, LVCT Health

Anne is an applied public health researcher with over 5 years’ experience in providing technical advice in designing and implementing research studies and pragmatic facility and community-based interventions / programs, with a focus on:

Prevention and Response to Violence against Children (VAC) and Violence against Women and girls (VAW/G), Strengthening service delivery to address VAC/W/G including child protection systems at community, facility, and national level in resource limited settings.

Within national and county TWGs on GBV/VAC and Social Protection of children and other platforms in Kenya, she has contributed to contribute to development of VAC/G/W related policies, training curricula and service delivery standards for VAC/W/G prevention, and design and implementation of national survey on child violence.

Currently she is engaged in a multinational Gender and COVID aims to document and analyze real-time differential gendered effects of the COVID 19 outbreak response and recovery in order to understand the impact the pandemic on vulnerable individuals and communities.
Anthony C. Andenoro, Florida Atlantic University

Anthony C. Andenoro, Ph.D., serves as the Director of Community Engagement & Programming, College of Social Work & Criminal Justice for Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida USA. His research includes the development of moral decision-making in leadership learners, the role of cognitive diversity and active learning strategies in the development of engagement, positive sentiment, and neuroplasticity within leadership learning environments, and the use of behavioral economics principles to shift attitudes and behaviors in under-resourced communities to address complex problems and create sustainability. He has over published 70 refereed and invited scholarly works, presented more than 90 refereed and invited conference papers, and secured more than $10.8 million in gift and grant funding to advance programmatic, teaching, and research initiatives.

Dr. Andenoro earned a BA in Communication from the University of Toledo, a MS in Educational Administration from Texas A&M University, and a PhD in Agricultural Education with an emphasis in Leadership Education from Texas A&M University.

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From Crisis to Accountability: Moral Leadership, Gender-Based Violence Prevention, and Lessons from Rural Migori County, Kenya for an Age of Polycrisis

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