Nairobi — The fight against Sexual and Gender Based Violence (GBV) in the country has received a significant boost following the launch of the second edition of the National Monitoring and Evaluation Framework towards the Prevention of and Response to Gender Based Violence in Kenya.
The framework launched Friday by the National Gender and Equality Commission in partnership with Equality Now, the Ministry of Public Service, Gender, Senior Citizens Affairs, and Special Programmes, and the Ministry of Health will integrate data collected from the National Police Service, the Judiciary, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and other relevant state agencies.
Joyce Mutinda, Chairperson NGEC, said that the launch is a demonstration of the Commission's commitment to ensuring the actualization of one of the 12 commitments made by President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2021 during the Generation Equality Forum in Paris as part of efforts meant to accelerate the eradication of GBV in Kenya by 2026.
Mutinda said that the commitment by Kenyatta which was to develop a GBV management and Information system by 2022 aimed at strengthening GBV prevention and response programming.
"When this system is up and running, we will be able to produce these periodic reports on SGBV not only for Kenya but also for East Africa, Africa, and the world at large. We shall have the hard data that we can give them," she said.
She added that as part of their Co-ordination mandate, the commission is bringing together multi-sectoral groups to be able to get the data required from each sector.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
The NGEC Chairperson noted that the gender data will inform policies and effectively evaluate efforts designed to prevent and respond to SGBV in Kenya.
Mutinda further urged the National Police Service to initiate POLICARE in all the 47 counties noting that it will go a long way in ending SGBV in the country.
"I call upon the NPS and the Government to ensure that we roll out POLICARE, it is one-stop shop for GBV, we roll out in all the counties," she added.
She went further to ask the Government to fast-track the signing and ratification of the International Labour Organization (ILO)convention 190 which she says which will go a long way towards ending SGBV or harassment at work.
Health Cabinet Administrative Secretary Mercy Mwangangi on her part said the launch comes at an opportune time when the country is inching closer to the August 9 polls.
She noted that GBV has been a thorny issue in the country's elections since the 1990s adding that the progressive constitution in the country has provided for laws and strengthened institutions developed to prevent and respond to sexual violence.
Mwangangi however said despite the progress the country continues to experience challenges in addressing SGBV issues.
"We had about 201 SGBV cases occurring in 11 counties in the 2017 general elections. The beauty of what we are doing here today is that putting up a system that will not only give us more credible data but also see the role of the actors involved in this space," she said.
Also present at the event is Julie Gitau, a representative from Equality Now, Betty Nyabuto, NGEC Commission Secretary, and representatives from the Judiciary, ODPP, and NPS.
