Kisumu on Thursday became the second county in the country after Meru to launch the sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) policy.
The policy was developed by the county government of Kisumu, in collaboration with various stakeholders and organisations among them KMET and Equality Now.
Speaking during the launch at a Kisumu Hotel on Thursday, County Assembly Speaker Elisha Oraro said the launch of the policy now means that Kisumu County will have a clear direction in the war against sexual and gender-based violence.
“Now Kisumu County will be working towards a direction that is known. For the last few years, it has been unfortunate that the work has been based on non-policies and non-framework,” said the Speaker.
He said that he hopes the relevant departments in Kisumu County will work on the legislative proposal so that the county assembly can start the process of transitioning the policy into a bill and later on a law.
“We expect that the team that is working on the same area will work on what is called a legislative proposal of the policy. Once it comes to the assembly it is now our work to work on it as first as possible. We will be holding a number of public participation forums on the same,” he added.
Nyando based human rights activist Caren Omanga said she is glad the county now has a policy on sexual and gender-based violence.
“We are happy that we were involved in coming up with a policy and I believe that with this policy we are going to make it,” she said.
Kisumu is among the counties with high rates of sexual and gender-based violence cases in the country.
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