Governor Natembeya”s Government Committed to Fight Gender Based Violence
Trans Nzoia County secretary Ms. Truphosa Amere today affirmed the county government’s commitment to working with other stakeholders to curb gender based violence (GBV) in the county.
She said the county administration will soon formulate policies that will guide the fight against the vice that she said threatens the lives of many people.
“As a sign of its commitment to zero tolerance to GBV, this financial year, the county administration will roll out engagements with stakeholders that would see the formulation of policy that will guide the fight against the vice, understanding that without policy there is no direction”Amere said.
she was speaking today at the county headquarters during the launch of the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence.
The C.S observed that already plans are in place to employ more healthcare workers at the gender recovery centers across the county to help boost the delivery of service.
“Trans Nzoia administration will work tirelessly in ensuring that we have created safe spaces for our people to thrive and therefore we will work together until the day we have zero tolerance to violence in this county,” Ms. Amere said.
She attributed the increased cases of school dropout to GBV saying many young people have failed to meet their aspirations because of GBV.
The C.S challenged stakeholders to roll out other initiatives that will focus more on people living with disability saying statistically they are more targeted.
Speaking at the same event, gender, youth sport, and culture CEC Channel Kittony said the GBV messages should reach all corners of the county saying the community must end violence against women and girls, adding that this year’s theme “Activism to end violence and girls” resonate well with the current administration schema of zero tolerance to GBV.
Statistics show that approximately 200-300 GBV cases are reported annually in the county. Defilement, rape, child abuse, and sexual assaults lead on the list, she said.
She revealed that her department will set up safe homes for the GBV victims.
Public service Management and Governance CEC Sam Ojwang called for combined efforts by the community to end GBV in the county.
“No one is supposed to go through GBV. We must join hands to end the vice that is being perpetrated by few people in the community,” he said.
Ojwang challenged law enforcement agencies to carry out their mandate in ensuring that those who violate the right of others are brought to book.
On his part USAID AMPTH, UZIMA representative Oliver said through the partnership with the county department of health, in the last three years, they have been able to train 70 healthcare providers on gender-based violence stigma, and discrimination revealing that the county will set up more GBV centers at sub-county hospitals.
“We train the health providers because when one is violated the first place a victim visits is a health facility. The facility also helps in ascertaining the damage, and the filling of the P3 forms for the victims” he said
USAID AMPATH UZIMA has recruited 16 activists to help push the campaign adding that the team will work with other stakeholders in the sensitization drive through community dialogue in the five sub-counties.
He said they target to boost visitations to health facilities.
“As a county, we have reported a substantial number of sexual violence and teenage pregnancies for the last two years, we have a program called RAMCA that focuses more on the community aspect. We intend to leverage on that to ensure that we create awareness in the community and reduce teenage pregnancies among school-going children,” Oliver said.
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