Despite the Country’s effort to end gender-related violence in vain, Bomet County recently commemorated International Women’s Day with a dark cloud of femicide cases hanging over it which has mostly claimed the lives of women in the area.
Over the past few days, Bomet hit headlines with cases of femicide and increased number of Female Genital mutilation cases, and Early Pregnancy reports depicting an image of a country that neglected the well-being of women and the girlchild in general.
However, stakeholders have pressed that there is a need for a multi-agency team comprising the gender departments, the police, and the community at large to come together to fight these vices.
Speaking in Bomet recently the Parliamentary Affairs Principal Secretary Aurelia Rono noted that there is a need to accelerate gender equality through economic empowerment and gender inclusivity.
Ms Aurelia urged women to rally behind each other in the realization of their goals, dreams, and targets in their pursuit.
“I hail great women who came before us and championed our rights such as the late Governor Dr. Joyce Laboso, I advise women to have a back for each other, and I emphasize the need to harness the power of women to accelerate progress towards a more just, equitable, and prosperous world for all,” said the PS who hails from the county.
Her visit comes amid a pending investigation of two major atrocities that claimed a life of a 17-year-old girl who was raped and strangled to death in Silibwet town, Bomet Central Sub-county a stone’s throw away from Silibwet police station.
Police reports indicate the victim was gang-raped and gagged with clothes and left for dead in a trench in the dead of night, she was later rescued by Samaritans and rushed to Tenwek Mission Hospital where she would later pass on from the injuries she had sustained.
“The rising case of insecurity at Bomet trading center is a matter of concern to all stakeholders and a crackdown should be conducted in the area to make it a crime-free zone,” Ms Lilah Siele, a Bomet Women’s leader said.
This incident comes barely three days after a man killed 3 of his children and a house help before taking his own life in the same village raising questions about the safety of women and the girl child in Bomet.
Security apparatus have however maintained anyone found culpable of engaging in gender-based violence will face the law and have appealed to the public to volunteer information.
“We did arrest one suspect in connection to the unfortunate incident that occurred in Silibwet involving that young lady, we are also appealing to anyone with information to volunteer to the police to enable us to bring culprits to book,” explained Bomet Central County Police Commander.
Lily Bosire, assistant director of gender from the State Department for Gender Bomet
The county said that they utilized the 16 days of gender activism to raise awareness about gender-based violence, challenge discriminatory attitudes and call for improved laws and services to end violence against women for good.
“Together with other Partners within the gender sector we recently utilized 16 Days of Activism, joining hands in raising awareness of what needs to change to prevent violence against women and girls from happening in the first place at local, regional, and even national levels,” explained Ms Bosire.
Defined by UN Women as intentional killings with a gender-related motive, femicide has claimed the lives of at least 500 women and girls in Kenya since 2016, despite the country’s efforts to prevent gender-based violence, according to the Africa Data Hub, a regional network of data organizations that trace such killings based on newspaper reports.
By Lamech Willy. A.
