Culture and norms in African societies, especially arbitration, and the Kangaroo courts, hinder efforts to tame Sexual and Gender-Based Violence.
This emerged during a workshop at Mwendantu in Imenti North, Meru County on Thursday.
Stakeholders are now worried that many victims of SGBV prefer settling their cases out of court.
Lilian Mwari, a staff with Sarakasi Trust, said they have initiated a program on the empowerment of women for the last year to reduce or completely end Sexual and Gender-based violence.
“We are on deliberation workshop involving all stakeholders including the office of the County Commissioner, Nairobi Women’s hospital, prosecutions office, gender department and others to find a solution in eradicating and advocacy on the surging cases of SGBV,” Mwari said.
Joseph Mutua, an officer advocating the Wezesha Wadada program said many times men fall victim to SGBV but many keep quiet to avoid stigma.
“Men often face a lot of challenges since reporting such cases seems odd. The law does not put more emphasis like it would happen when compared to women. It is like a gender-only affair. Involving men in the fight against SGBV is the only way to curb the increasing cases of feminists,” he said.
In 2023 alone, there were 1,468 reported cases of SGBV in the county.
Mwari said norms and culture have made it hard to curb and end SGBV, especially FGM.
“Meru is leading in SGBV cases and the only way is to empower those who understand the challenges many face. The big percentage of perpetrators are men,” she said.
Brian Kenneth, the North Imenti assistant County commissioner who represented the county commissioner at the workshop said the triple threat is part of President William Ruto’s mandate and policy and he has directed administrators and police to support and stand firm to eradicate SGBV.
He said the statistics are very alarming and a grave problem.
He called upon the community to first end Kangaroo courts because they are hampering efforts to fight the SGBV pandemic.
“We must stop these vices and no one should hide behind Culture so that together we will have no case of teenage pregnancy, no case of new HIV infections, no cases of FGM, no case of any kind of violence in our communities,” Kenneth said.
Once we say enough is enough then all players in the sector must incorporate our activities and channels and embrace them, he said.
He added that the time has come and there is nothing that will hinder policy implementors from delivering the President’s mandate.
