• Dubbed 'Tumaini clinics' persons visiting the centres will get counselling and help in gathering forensic evidence to be used against perpetrators.
• “We call these clinics, 'Tumaini' as they restore hope and dignity to traumatised survivors,” NMS director general Mohammed Badi said on Friday.
Victims and survivors of gender violence will be able to get care at 21 of 24 new health centres built by the Nairobi Metropolitan Service.
Dubbed 'Tumaini clinics' persons visiting the centres will get counselling and help in gathering forensic evidence to be used against perpetrators.
“We call these clinics, 'Tumaini' as they restore hope and dignity to traumatised survivors,” NMS director general Mohammed Badi said on Friday.
Cases of sexual and gender violence are on the rise in Nairobi according to official records.
Last year, NMS health facilities reported 6,262 SGBV cases, with 972 treated at Mama Lucy Hospital.
Badi said out of 6,262 cases, his team linked 50 to legal access leading to the arrest of nine perpetrators. Four cases resulted in convictions but two suspects are still in remand.
NMS opened Mama Lucy Hospital's Tumaini clinic on Friday as part of the Internal Women’s Day celebration.
Justice Agnes Murgor and Badi officiated the launch in the present of several victims and survivors. Nairobi Education executive Janet Ouko, Gender CASs Beatrice Elachi and Jebii Kilimo were present.
Mama Lucy Hospital medical superintendent Emma Mutio said the clinic operates 24 hours a day with five nurses in shifts.
“As Mama Lucy Hospital, we take pride in the centre being a one-stop clinic where holistic care is given to survivors of rape,” she said.
The clinic gets referrals from Dandora, Kayole, Pipeline, Tassia and other areas in Embakasi.
The Tumaini clinic project was founded by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with Medicin San Frontiers in 2016.
Data from Mama Lucy Hospital shows that since 2016, about 5,700 patients have visited the facility on SGBV issues with a minimum of five patients per day.
Approximately 4,000 victims of gender violence, half of them children under 18 have been attended to at Mama Lucy.
Between October and December last year, the hospital managed 326 new cases and 258 survivors.
From January up to March 12, the facility had registered 179 new cases and 137 survivors.
“Our staff are regularly trained in the latest standards in forensic evidence management. We have a strong team of counsellors and psychologists to ensure our clients get the best care possible,” Mutio said.
Murgor said SGBV victims can get essential services from the Tumaini clinic where medical staff can pay attention to their needs. She is the International Association of Women Judges president for Kenya.
“The Tumaini clinic is but an example of more of what we need to have in Nairobi for the SGBV victims. Our biggest problem has been where do we send the victims of SGBV survivors. But we are now heading in the right direction,” Murgor said.
Last year, the deputy majority whip in the Nairobi assembly, Waithera Chege, raised concerns over the need to support SGBV survivors in the capital.
She sponsored a motion that passed in the house, calling for the executive to establish gender-based violence desks across all 17 subcounties for victims and survivors in Nairobi.
The legislator raised concerns that many cases have gone unnoticed, especially during the Covid-19 crisis given the lack of a data management system for GBV.
A 2020 study by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics showed that 23.6 per cent of Kenyans have witnessed or heard cases of domestic violence in their communities since the introduction of Covid-19 containment measures.
“Many gender-based violence acts have gone unnoticed due to lack of proper reporting mechanisms resulting in having no data kept for survivors,” Waithera said.