The national government will assist the Nyeri county government to set up a safe house for gender-based violence victims, Youth and Gender CAS Rachel Shebesh said.
Shebesh said the victims will find help in a safer environment where they can find a police officer, a counselor and treatment for injuries.
The CAS said a GBV centre within a hospital was the safest place where a police officer trained on GBV and a counselor would be stationed.
The victim would be kept at the centre, the CAS said, until they are ready to move to the safe house where they can stay.
Taking them directly back to their homes where the violence occurred may not be of much help, she said at the governor's office on Friday.
“For us, we will have really covered that particular victim well. But it is not a process of one or two days. Any victim who comes in is probably a person who will take three to six months to be rehabilitated and to go back to society,” she said.
This, she said, would enable the victims to take care of their families if they will have to part ways with their husband or wife.
“On gender-based violence, we have spoken about this before and we have already got a plan on how to secure the gender-based recovery centre, which the governor said he has already created,” she said.
Shebesh said cases of GBV had risen by 30 per cent from the time the Covid-19 pandemic was confirmed in the country.
“But as you know, there is a new normal and that new normal for GBV was a rise of almost 30 per cent from where we were and that is like taking us back four or five years,” she said.
She said the Department of Gender under the ministry has been working with organisations that could help safeguard the safety of women including putting in place counseling services for them.
Edited by Henry Makori
