National Gender and Equality Commission (NGEC) Chairperson, Dr Joyce Mutinda, has called for the state’s fulfilment of the remaining commitments it made at the Generation Equality Forum.
The Forum that was held in Paris, France last year, was attended by various countries including Kenya, who gave pledges to advance gender equality in their respective countries.
President Uhuru Kenyatta made 12 pledges toward ending the gender-based violence (GBV) scourge in Kenya, notably, ending Female Genital Mutilation and GBV by 2022 and 2016 respectively.
Dr Mutinda said that although a number of the commitments had been fulfilled, it was important to fast-track the implementation of the remaining ones.
“One of those commitments His Excellency had made was that Policare was going to be rolled out in all the 47 counties. I call upon Governors and the National Police Service to make sure these one-stop GBV centres are up and running,” she said.
She said that the second county to put up the centre was Laikipia after Nairobi, whose centre was still not quite operational one year after ground was broken to construct it.
Dr Mutinda said that the National Government Affirmative Fund (NGAAF) had given some resources to the centre and hoped the structure would be running in the next few weeks.
She was speaking during the launch of the Framework for the National Gender-based Violence Information System which will also be operational in the next two weeks.
The Information System will be an integrated platform containing data on GBV from all over the country.
This was also among the 12 commitments made in Paris and Dr Mutinda said that NGEC was playing its part in helping to fight GBV.
She further called on the Government to fulfil its other commitment to sign and ratify the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 190.
“This Convention 190 calls for the elimination of gender-based violence and sexual harassment in the workplace,” she said.
Dr Mutinda said that the Commission was alive to the fact that Kenya committed to ratifying this convention by 2026 but she said we could do it sooner.
“NGEC is ready to lead the way in ensuring this important commitment is ratified because it will go a long way in ensuring Kenyans are free of sexual harassment and violence in the world of work,” she concluded.
