Domestic violence against women and children tops the list of complaints handled by National Human Rights Commission in Western Kenya.
The commission’s western Kenya region head, Antonina Okuta said the office devolved into the counties in January has received more reports on rights violation at home than elsewhere combined.
She said the commission has consequently commenced awareness drive to encourage victims of rights violation lodge complaints at their offices which have been devolved to community levels.
“The bulk of complaints reaching us are on violation at home; we are therefore calling on victims to come to us for redress,” she said at a media briefing at their western Kenya head office in Kisumu.
She went on: “We are now available in the counties in the spirit of the new Constitution and devolution to reach every victimizedindividual.”
In the past, victims had to travel to head offices in Nairobi. This, Okuta said, made it difficult addressing the plight of the many cases reported in the remote parts of the country with no access to head office.
The commission, whose mandates overlap with these of the commission on Administrative Justice, has deals with complaints bordering rights violation.
The complaints which range from violation by police, devolved structures, employers, and family members, are investigated by KNHRC for redress and to deter future repetition.
Okuta said “unlike CAJ which handles through complaints on public maladministration and resolves them mostly through enquiries, the commission is specific on investigation of violation of human rights; some of which stem out of public maladministration.”
She said insecurity, inadequate access to health facilities, child labour, police violations, business and violation by the devolved structures are some of the key concerns in the region.
As part of awareness creation on human rights the commission trained senior police officers from the region on the need to uphold and safeguard human rights between November 4-8.
It has also planned awareness drive against violence against women and children to run from November 25 to December 10.
The campaign culminates into the International Human Rights marked every December 10.
The devolved offices in western Kenya have also coalesced into a network to push for consciousness as on the December date.
Kisumu County government has been called upon to lead residents in a 5 kilometre procession from the Governor Jack Ranguma’s office to Kibuye primary school, as a sign of solidarity in the campaign.
The event will be marked at the school, with similar occasions expected across the 47 counties.