A section of Trans Nzoia women leaders led by Immaculate Shamala has called on both the national and county governments to allocate funds for the fight against Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and femicide cases.
Speaking in Kitale Town during the handing over of a memorandum to Trans Nzoia County Commissioner Gideon Oyagi, Shamala said the funds will be used to sensitize members of the public about the dangers and impacts of GBV in society.
“It is good that we have GBV vote in our budgets. Apart from sensitization of the public, the money will also provide start-up capital to the victims of GBV,” Shamala stated.
The authoritative human rights defender also called for the formulation of femicide policies and legal framework.
“It is very sad that there are so many cases of femicide in our society. Unfortunately, we don’t have femicide laws in this country. Such a law should be formulated and implemented as early as yesterday,” she urged.
She further asked the government to consider employing marriage counsellors in all 47 counties to help deal with cases of domestic violence.
Femicide, GBV fight need concerted efforts
Receiving the memorandum, Oyagi said the fight against GBV and femicide needs the efforts of all stakeholders.
“We have witnessed cases of GBV, we have witnessed femicide cases and I want to agree that for us to be able adequately to handle these cases, we require adequate funding, we require a coordinated approach given that we have various sectors, various partners who handling GBV but in a very disjointed and uncoordinated manner,” the county commissioner stated.
In addition, the County Security and Intelligence Committee chairperson called on members of the public to present their views on how to best deal with GBV and femicide in Kenya.
“I want to prevail upon the people of Trans Nzoia to freely give their views, suggestions and recommendations on how best we can reverse the trend we are witnessing,” he appealed.
The memorandum will be presented to the 42-member task force formed by President William Ruto in January 2025 to address gender-based violence and femicide. The task force is headed by former Deputy Chief Justice Nancy Barasa
The technical workng group was formed following a sharp increase in cases of femicide and gender-based violence. It is reported that in 2024, 97 cases of femicide and over 4,000 GBV cases were reported in Kenya.
