The Ministry of Gender and Public Service has embarked on training women in Meru County in a bid to curb gender-based violence (GBV) cases.
Through the State Department of Gender, they embarked on the training for Twaweza Women Groups in the county last week in partnership with the County Government and AMREF.
On Friday, women from women Tigania East Sub-county got trained after Imenti South, North, Central, Buuri and Tigania West Sub-Counties.
The training is said to be part of the government’s commitments made at the Generation Equality Forum in Paris last year by President Uhuru Kenyatta, key among them being to end GBV by 2026.
The government has been rolling out Generation Equality Mashinani programmes as a way of localising the commitments and getting to fulfil them.
Mary Kabaru from the State Department of Gender said that it was important to localise the 12 Generation Equality commitments.
“Everyone has a role in actualising the Generation Equality commitments in advancing gender equality and ending all forms of gender-based violence in Kenya,” she said.
The Acting Director of GBV at the Department of Gender, Halima Abdi, raised concern about the high number of GBV cases in the county.
“Statistics from the National GBV Hotline, 1195 shows that between January and March 2022, Meru County was number 13 among counties with the highest cases,” she said.
Kabaru said that everyone should play their role in making sure GBV is eradicated by 2026.
She further lauded the County Government of Meru for being the first to launch a gender policy to mainstream gender into various sectors.
Leaders and members of the community were also urged to involve women in climate action initiatives to improve agricultural productivity in the dry parts of Meru County.
“The implementation of the policy will be key in addressing cases of GBV in Meru County,” she said.
The women were urged to take advantage of government resources such as Uwezo Fund and Women Enterprise Fund to empower themselves economically.
Meru Governor Kiraitu Murungi said during the beginning of the training that it was necessary for women to have their own money in their pockets.
Economic empowerment of women has also been pointed out as key in preventing GBV in rural areas.
