Rongai police station gets mattresses, diapers for gbv victims

The Ongata Rongai Police Station in Kajiado North Sub-county on Friday received mattresses, blankets, sanitary pads and diapers to assist victims of violence more efficiently.

Jackline Saleiyan, founder of A Pack A Month, a Kajiado based organisation that donated to the gender desk, said that it was a necessary donation to the Station.

“You usually find that victims of domestic or gender-based violence in general, majority of them being women, come to the gender desk at the station to receive help,” she said.

These women, she said, often cannot go back home where the perpetrator is so they have to find a place to stay in the meantime.

“They often come here with their children, having not packed anything because you never really get prepared for violence so usually, when they arrive here, they have nothing,” she said.

Saleiyan, through her organization, had previously donated a double-decker bed to the gender desk in November but it lacked mattresses.

“I had gotten a bed from well-wishers to use for a shelter for girls but the shelter was not ready yet so, I thought who else might need this bed and I thought of the gender desk,” she said.

The Officer in Charge of the Station, Ezra Mworia, said that the organisation’s donation was very generous.

“We can now be able to help victims who stay here with comfortable accommodation as they get attended to. The mothers with children even have diapers provided for their children now. We are very grateful,” he said.

Saleiyan said that the only remaining challenge would be to keep up with the donations, especially providing food for the victims.

“The children and gender center in the police station is separate from the cells. Unlike inmates or remandees, the victims seeking help here do not have food catered for them,” she said.

Police Officers, Saleiyan said, usually have to feed the victims from their own pocket for the duration they are at the center.

“If the gender desk can get food from well-wishers, then it would go a long way,” she said.

The desk also received washables masks, female undergarments, duvets and makintoshes for children.