City Hall to convert idle county houses into SGBV shelters
What you need to know:
- NMS Director Major General Mohamed Badi has directed City Hall to convert idle county government houses into safe houses for SGBV survivors and victims.
- Once the safe house is complete, supporting health staff will be assigned to offer services to the victims and survivors.
Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) Director Major General Mohamed Badi has directed City Hall to convert idle county government houses into safe houses for survivors and victims of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV).
The houses fall under the transferred functions that were moved to the national government entity in February last year.
Mr Badi said some of the houses could be converted into safe shelters after renovations.
“I want to see your budget for repairing those houses so that they can be a safe house for women and girls,” said Mr Badi when he met county officials and Nairobi SGBV caucus officials.
The new development comes after Nairobi County Women SGBV caucus led by Nairobi County Assembly Deputy Majority Whip Waithera Chege decried the lack of places of refuge for victims and survivors of SGBV despite Nairobi leading in such cases.
Consequently, the caucus asked for the county government and NMS to provide the safe houses.
At least 6,262 SGBV cases have been reported across county government hospitals in the last 11 months. Most of the cases have been treated at Mama Lucy Hospital’s SGBV centre with 972 cases handled in the same period alone.
Since its inception in 2015, Mama Lucy has attended to 5,688 SGBV patients with 50 per cent being minors.
Supporting health staff
Between, October and December last year, the facility handled 326 new cases and 258 survivors, while this year alone, it has registered 179 new cases of SGBV and 137 survivors.
The NMS boss further directed that a Nairobi County safe house be completed within four months as opposed to the two years City Hall had projected.
Once the safe house is complete, NMS Director for Health Service Dr Ouma Oluga said supporting health staff will be assigned to offer services to the SGBV victims and survivors.
“We are committed to supporting all women, and it is worth noting that even though 45 per cent of women and 66 per cent of girls have faced GBV of some sort, men too, experience GBV at about 15 per cent of them,” said NMS Director for Health Service Dr Ouma Oluga.
Meanwhile, City Hall has set aside two interim homes as ‘safe shelters’ including a 76-bed capacity home in Kayole for women and girls who are victims of SGBV and 20-bed capacity at Shauri Moyo set aside for men and boys.
