Government Challenged To Address GBV Matters Proactively Rather Than Reactively

By Isabella Maua

During the holiday season, parents and guardians have been pushed to reconsider their children’s upbringing and consider their physical and mental health.

Speaking in Bungoma, the County Director of the State Department for Gender and Affirmative Action, Ann Baraza, observed that many parents focus solely on providing their children with food, shelter, and education, neglecting other essential requirements.

According to the Kenya Bureau of Statistics, by 2022, the rate of gender-based violence and other forms of violence in Bungoma County was at 62%.

This means up to 6 among 10 women, including girls and adults, have been violated in one way or another, and Bungoma is leading in the country on cases of violence.

“253 cases are ongoing within Bungoma County on gender-based violence, most of whom are young boys and girls who have been defiled at the family level,” reported Baraza.

Despite Bungoma County’s reputation as one of Kenya’s most peaceful regions, she observes that family-level violence persists.

“70% of gender-based violence is experienced at home, in the family; women are battered, boys are sodomized, and girls defiled; fewer men, too, go through such acts of violence right where they call home,” she decried.

The government has decided to take up a preventive approach rather than being responsive by training parents on how to prevent violence at home.

Actually, in most cases, it is either the parents or the guardians who happen to be perpetrators of violence, so having them at the forefront is a very strategic way to fight the vice.

The State Department for Gender and Affirmative Action has therefore launched a program titled “Positive Parenting” in Bungoma County.

60 community members have so far been trained to serve as champions and to educate the community on appropriate parenting skills.

Consequences of GBV are dire, more so on children; they destroy one’s destiny and future forever, and the scar really never heals; curbing it is the only way to secure their lives.

Most importantly, these are just the reported cases; many cases go unreported due to either kangaroo courts or the survivors’ ignorance of the law.

More than ever, it is high time the clergy, media, education fraternity, and local administration raised their voices to end gender-based violence as a sure way to secure the future generation.

By December 2025, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in Bungoma reported active sexual gender-based violence cases as follows: 92 cases in Bungoma Court, 42 in Sirisia Court, 49 in Webuye, and 80 in Kimilili Court.