The National Police Service has partnered with a non-governmental organization to roll out campaigns to discourage sexual violence against women and girls in Homa-Bay.
The organisation dubbed Champion for Peace Movement (CPM), is collaborating with police officers to ensure that all defilement and other forms of gender based violence cases are tracked and culprits arraigned in courts.
CPM Director Elly Opondo said the CBO is rolling out a program called girls and young women empowerment and mentorship where they have engaged the police officers to follow up all sexual related cases.
Opondo made the remarks Thursday when he paid a courtesy call on Homa Bay County Police Commander Esther Seroney and donated a computer for digital filing of gender based violence cases. The organisation also donated sanitary pads to the child protection Unit in Homa bay police station.
He noted that the numbers of defilement cases were on the rise in the county.
Opondo lamented that majority of cases of defilement in Homa-Bay County were never prosecuted because parents usually opt to enter into out of court settlements with culprits.
“Many times police officers have been accused of colluding with culprits to defeat justice but our research shows that the parents are the ones who have been colluding with perpetrators,” Opondo said.
The director said that his organization would continue supporting the child protection unit and cater for basic supplies so that those children whose rights are violated get basic needs while still at the police station.
“We will be supporting the protection unit with a budget of Sh50, 000 each month to make sure that the unit runs smoothly,” he added.
Opondo further disclosed that they are also going to train more police officers on gender-based violence and referral services since a number of cases go un-booked at the police stations.
At the same time, he revealed that the program which will run for a period of three years will see more paralegal officers and media practitioners trained to work in collaboration with police to pursue defilement cases and prosecute them.
Homa Bay County Police Commander Esther Seroney welcomed the initiative and assured that they are going to work with various agencies to ensure children whose rights are violated get justice.
By Davis Langat
