The British Council and Premier League, together with Kenyan Partners are scaling up an innovative programme which uses football to tackle violence against women and girls in Western Kenya to Kisumu County.
The Addressing Violence against Women and Girls through Football programme builds on the British Council and Premier League’s highly successful premier skills initiative and is funded by the UK’s Department for International Development.
It has been running successfully in Mount Elgon region since March this year.
Kisumu Governor Jack Ranguma said a study by FIDA-K in 2012 also indicated that the major form of gender based violence in the county was forced wife inheritance.
Ranguma said accordingly, women are forced to be inherited at the risk of eviction or being disinherited.
The study further identifies child sexual exploitation as a prevalent form of GBV in the county.
A 2014 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey Report highlighted Nyanza region as having the second highest rate of violence against women and girls.
The statistics show that approximately, 51.9 per cent of women in Nyanza between the ages 15 and 49 have ever experienced either physical or sexual violence which is the second highest rate after Western Kenya with 55.6 per cent.
“Our neighbours in Western Province lead on these sad statistics with 56 per cent and I am happy to note that this programme is already working in Bungoma County,” said Ranguma.
He spoke on Friday during the launch of the programme at Moi Stadium in Kisumu.
The governor said he was happy the programme will engage both boys and girls in football activities as well as address some of the attitudes and behaviours that give rise to high level of violence against women and girls.
The head of DFID in Kenya, Lisa Philips, said they are delighted that the programme is moving to Kisumu.
Philips said they believe they will continue inspiring change in young people because participating in sports is a powerful tool of addressing gender inequality.
“By engaging boys and girls together through football, the programme aims to target harmful social attitude and empower young people to speak out within their communities and stamp out abuse, discrimination and violence,” she said.
She said DFID is committed in helping communities in Kenya to end gender stereotypes so that they can channel their efforts jointly to fight poverty and to plan a more prosperous future for their women and girls.