Officials from gender sector working groups in Kajiado engaged in a fruitful discussion on how they can bring on board their male counterparts in policy-making and male inclusion on matters related to gender.
During the discussion Kajiado county gender officials were asked to highlight the challenges faced by both men and women for the national government together with NGOs to address and support them financially and through capacity building.
The officials were advised to give reports on the status of men in the county, the challenges they go through, why some feel side-lined, and how they can be involved as duty bearers.
Kajiado CEC Gender, Cooperatives, Culture, Tourism and Wildlife, Janet Sereu said that, from the discussions, they realized that for them to succeed in gender mainstreaming, it is important to bring on board the male gender in policy making.
“We have unanimously agreed to engage the men in our mentorship programs and economic empowerment. Together with the national government we will draft a plan that will involve all teams we realized for us to be successful in our gender programs, we need to include the men,” said Sereu.
CEC Sereu also revealed that, since the Ministry of Gender commenced mentorship programs, they discovered that the Maa community has had a thirst and call for mentorship, and for this reason, they need a bigger team.
“For us to do work without confusion or duplication, we are going to work with the national government, where we will be engaging one another in our plans for us to reach the maa community and build a footmark in Kajiado county because they have a thirst and call for mentorship for both the youth and the men,” revealed Sereu.
County Social Development Officer Mr. Jimmy Njau pointed out that, their department is working with the national government towards engaging the men in positive parenting in a program and training dubbed ‘Positive Male Engagement Parenting’ to avoid cases where children only depend on their mothers.
In the meeting, the officials agreed to come up with alternative means to engage the unemployed youths both male and female so that they do not get into drugs, engage the young girls in various activities and mentorship programs to avoid cases of early pregnancies.
By Seline Nyangere
