Nairobi Metropolitan Services Director Major General Mohamed Badi has mandated City Hall to convert idle county government houses into havens for survivors and victims of sexual and gender-based violence.
Badi noted that some of the county-owned houses required minimal renovations on a budget.
“How many houses does the county have that are lying idle, that require very little money to be transformed into a safe house or isolation shelter?"
"I want to see your budget for repairing those houses so that they can be a safe house for women and girls,” stated General Badi.
The houses which are under transferred functions were shifted to the national government entity in February 2020. Badi directed that the safe houses be completed within two months contrary to City Hall's projection of two years.
“We are committed to supporting all women, and it is also worth noting that 45 percent of women and 66 percent of girls have faced GBV of some sort,” he added.
NMS Health Service director Dr. Ouma Oluga stated that health workers will be assigned to offer services to the SGBV victims and survivors.
This comes weeks after Nairobi County Women SGBV congress, led by Nairobi County Assembly Deputy Majority Whip Waithera Chege, raised concerns over the lack of places of refuge for victims and survivors of SGBV with cases rising in Nairobi.
According to Badi, 17 cases are reported every day in the various facilities in Nairobi, and 7,262 in the last 11 months countrywide.
On March 15, NMS made a provision to attend to and rehabilitate gender-based violence victims. It incorporated sexual and gender-based violence(SGBV) services in all the 24 new health facilities that were put up across city estates.
In addition, it set up 21 more facilities to offer integrated SGBV services to restore hope and dignity to victims.
