Survivors of gender-based violence will have a shelter and safe house, thanks to Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho.
Nairobi Woman Representative Esther Passaris on Wednesday thanked Joho for the two acres allocated in Mwakirunge where a Sh32 million house will be built.
The construction timeline was not known but plans will be drawn up soon.
Passaris asked other governors to set aside pubic land for GBV survivors' shelters.
“The lack of public safe houses for GBV victims across the country is hindering the fight against the vice," she said.
Passaris was hosted by her Mombasa counterpart Asha "Ashu" Hussein and Changamwe MP Omar Mwinyi at Tononka Hall.
During the coronavirus pandemic, defilement, rape and abuse have increased and the safety of women, girls and boys should be ensured, Passaris said.
Without safe houses for GBV survivors, civil society organisations struggle to keep women and girls safe from their abusers.
Speaking to the Star, Muslims for Human Rights (Muhuri) gender officer Topister Juma said in most cases the women who want to leave thier abusers have no where to go.
“In cases where wives are abused by their husbands, for example, their families mostly insist that the wife should solve their issues and they continue living together,” Juma said.
In such a case, a safe house would have been the best place for the woman to live until she decides what to do, she said.
“But since there is no single public safe house at the Coast yet, it is difficult for us to hire a place to keep them,” she said.
Private safe houses exist but their owners may change their minds and decide to do something else with the property.
Juma welcomed the safe house project of the national Affirmative Action Fund (NGAAF).
She said the establishment of a public safe house on two acres in Mwakirunge will help alleviate suffering of women in Mombasa and elsewhere at the Coast.
“Now, at least women victims of GBV will have somewhere safe for them to stay,” she said.
NGAAF Mombasa county chair Dennis Juma Okwara said the safe house would cost Sh32 million.
“Next week, we will be visiting the site together with government architects who will draw up the plans for approval,” Okwara said.
Ashu said she has been saving NGAAF money for three years for a safe house.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris
