Nairobi Metropolitan services (NMS) has made a provision to attend to and rehabilitate gender-based violence victims. It has incorporated sexual and gender-based violence(SGBV) services in all the 24 new health facilities that have been put up across city estates.
It has set up additional 21 facilities, Tumaini clinics, to offer integrated SGBV services to restore hope and dignity to victims.
This is after the Nairobi County Assembly approved a motion by Deputy Majority Whip and South B MCA Waithera Chege seeking to have City Hall and NMS set up gender-based violence desks across all 17 sub-counties for victims and survivors in Nairobi.
“We now need the motion to be put into action by both the county executive and NMS. The county government has also failed to allocate any budget towards dealing with his issue,” she noted.
NMS director Major General Badi stated that 17 cases are reported every day in the various facilities in Nairobi and 7,262 in the last 11 months countrywide.
Health CAS Mercy Mwangangi also aired her concerns over the same issue noting the rise since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"SGBV is not only a health concern but also a human right issue and survivors should access medical care, legal aid and psychosocial support including shelter and community reintegration," said General Badi.
He further noted that Mama Lucy Hospital SGBV center handled 972 cases in that period.
"Of these, we linked 50 cases for legal access where nine perpetrators apprehended, two still in remand while four of the cases have bad positive convictions," he said during the launch of a Tumaini clinic at Mama Lucy Hospital.
Lady justice Agnes Murgor acknowledged that the cases have not gotten enough attention from legal entities declaring that it's an issue that needs to be addressed.
She highlighted the delays involved in the submission of evidence, the loopholes in the legal system, and the leniency shown to the criminals.
"The Tumaini clinic is just but an example of more of what we need to have in Nairobi for the SGBV victims. Our biggest problem has been where to send the victims of SGBV survivors. But we are now heading in the right direction," she remarked.
