Gender-based criminals in Siaya have been put on notice.
All women police officers in the county are being empowered and deployed to sort out the perpetrators of gender-based violence, rape and defilement.
Siaya county police commander Francis Koome said the women officers are being trained on all aspects of sexual offences and evidence gathering strategies.
“Siaya has a lot of cases of sexual offences and to put an end to this menace we must invest in our officers to bring to book the culprits,” Koome said.
Men in the region have the misplaced belief that sleeping with a minor heals those infected with HIV and Aids.
Koome said the young ones have to be protected from those who subscribe to such beliefs.
The commander was addressing over 200 female police officers during a one day workshop in Siaya town.
“The training will ensure that our officers are in a position to produce watertight evidence before the court to sentence all sexual offence perpetrators,” he said.
He said lack of tight evidence has seen perpetrators go scot-free in courts, emboldening other perpetrators.
“With the training, no perpetrator will ever go scot-free as we will be in a position to gather evidence from scratch.”
“The reason for acquittals is due to poor police work as most of the officers have not been trained adequately on handling sexual offences. That’s why we have subjected our officers to such training,” he said.
