By The Peak
In an effort to end Gender Based Violence (GBV) that has been rampant in Meru County, a non-governmental organisation has come up with a programme to train women champions who will further the agenda of eradicating the vice in the region.
Speaking at YWCA offices in Meru during a workshop to empower the champions, Ms Lillian Mwari Kithinji from the Sarakasi Trust said that they had been running a program dubbed Wezesha Wanadada in the county for the last one year with an aim of sensitizing the community and the champions against GBV.
“We are here today for a workshop to deliberate with other stakeholders mostly the office of the County Commissioner, GBV coordinator, Nairobi Women’s Hospital, the office of the Director of Public Prosecution among others on how we will support the 80 champions in eradicating and advocacy against GBV,” said Ms Kithinji.
She said the initiative to fight the vice was triggered by the fact that the cases of GBV have been on the rise in Meru County since 2021 and that this was not a good reputation for the region.
“If we empower these women together with a few men that we have called here today by making them know what is GBV, then we will help decreasing the number of cases and eventually eradicate it completely from the this County,” said Ms Kithinji.
She said the biggest perpetrators of GBV in the county were men and that was the reason they were slowly including them in the conversation.
“We have also realised that there are some norms that are supporting GBV including Female Genital Mutilation and these are some of which we are also sensitizing our champions against, ” said Ms Kithinji.
Assistant County Commissioner Mr Brian Kori who represented the County Commissioner said ending GBV and in extension triple threat is part of the President William Ruto’s policies which the office was fully in support of.
He also called for an end of Kangaroo Courts dealing with GBV cases adding that these are some of the stumbling blocks in the fight against the vice.
Mr Joseph Gichunge from Kangaroo actors 2000 organisation said the conversation to end GBV should not be one sided but include men in planning, and even executing various activities aimed at ending the vice.
