Gender-agenda: How your county has performed

In this three-part series covering Nyanza, Rift Valley, Western, Mt Kenya and Coastal regions, we look at how the gender departments have performed. Our first stop is  Nyanza an Western regions.  

Since 2013, Kenya has run on two levels of government—national and county.

With the devolved government came hopes of improved service delivery and accelerated empowerment of the locals. One key service is gender initiatives. These services are crucial to not only lifting the 23.5 million male gender and 24 million female gender out of poverty, but to also reduce gender inequalities through appropriate gender responsive programming.

Going by the annual budget review for the 2013/14, the national government transferred Sh193.4 billion to the counties. This was in addition to Sh26.3 billion generated in local revenue. Then, the counties spent Sh.36.6 billion for development.

By the first half of the 2021/22, the counties had received Sh104 billion and raised Sh6.76 billion of its own income. On development, the counties spent Sh3.55 billion, representing an absorption rate of 1.9 per cent. This, the Controller of Budget notes as an increase from 1.4 per cent attained in the first quarter of 2020/21 when the total development expenditure was Sh2.3 billion.

With this huge amounts of money going to the counties, it is just right to hold the leadership accountable by asking if they have the infrastructure to implement the gender services, and how they have utilised the funds allocated.

In this three-part series covering Nyanza, Rift Valley, Western, Mt Kenya and Coastal regions, we look at how the gender departments have performed.

Nyanza and Western regions have little to show. They have no budget allocation and a handful of trained and experienced officers to handle the docket.

The gender offices have been reduced to appendages of other county government ministries without proper funding and resources to enable officials go about their duties with ease.

Tiny offices

Gender officials here operate from tiny offices, crammed with files and a few pieces of furniture. They rely on transport from other county departments to make field visits or address emergencies in rural parts of the devolved units.

In Kakamega County, gender is one of the four directorates in the government’s Ministry of Social Services, Sports, Youth, Women Empowerment and Culture. The other directorates are Social Services, Labour and Children. The Gender directorate relies

Despite the financial challenges, the directorate has been tasked with ensuring that all county ministries in the region mainstream gender issues and programmes in their work plans.

“Part of our challenge is related to the fact that gender is not a fully devolved function, but none the less, we stay focused on our mandate, which is to integrate equality in access of county resources regardless of one’s gender,” explains Yvonne Atsenga, the Gender Director, Kakamega County.

The gender programmes implemented by the different county ministries target both men and women.

The county government has constructed 1,800 houses under the shelter improvement programme. The semi-permanent one-bedroom structures cost Sh126,000 and meant to benefit vulnerable families.

The beneficiaries are given two blankets and a mattress.

Ms Atsenga said six women are picked from each of the 60 wards to benefit from the shelter improvement programme.

Gender-based violence

An additional 720 houses will be completed before June this year.

The county government has also constructed a rescue centre in Shinyalu, Kakamega East Sub-county for victims of gender-based violence (GBV) victims.

The facility, which has not been operationalised, will have two safe rooms, a para-legal room, a laboratory and clinical officer’s room.

Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) cases are handled by county officials from the health services.

The gender director is involved in advocacy campaigns across the 12 sub-counties. The campaigns involve key partners who include police, community members, and civil society actors.

Others are county officials from respective ministries and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) who are members of the Kakamega County Gender Sectoral Working Group.

In Kisumu County, inadequate resources, lack of trained officers and low budgetary allocation remains a major barrier to service delivery at the gender offices.
The county principal gender officer serving the national government Joel Okumu, says that although Kisumu has active offices, a lot more still needs to be done to improve services in the region.

He states that since the creation of the national government offices in counties in 2017, they are yet to receive any budgetary allocation for development activities.

“What we have been receiving is a stipend released to us quarterly and can barely facilitate our activities,” said Mr Okumu.

Besides the financial constraints, the national office, which serves the entire county is understaffed and lacks a proper transport system for the officials.

He adds: “We also have only two officers serving the entire county; with the limited resources, we can hardly serve our clients as expected,” he says.

Apart from the national government offices, the county has set up its own functional office and eight other sub-county offices.

Service delivery

County gender officer Joel Orude , however, admits that just like the national officers, the county has done little to ensure fair budgetary allocation to its nine offices.

“Currently, we do not have any clear budgetary allocation for our development programs, which has greatly affected our service delivery," says Mr Orude.

He says the offices still largely depend on partners to source funds to keep their programs running.

The Department of Gender in Homa Bay County is one of the dockets whose functions are yet to be felt by members of the public.

Since the establishment of the county government in 2013, the office has been kept on the peripheral with the staff getting limited resources to do their work.

In Homa Bay County, the office falls under one ministry that has at least six departments that include Sports, Tourism, Youth, Culture, Gender and Social Services. They are collectively handled by a county executive committee member assisted by the chief officer.

Each department has a director to run the operations and activities. Their responsibility at the devolved unit are, however, limited to office work unlike their counterparts from State departments.

Currently, the active department within the ministry is Sports, which is currently engaged in the construction of a multimillion stadium.

The other departments have budget cuts and are low on human resource.

Ida Okeyo, one of the gender officers, says their main function is addressing issues affecting both men and women in the county.

The head office in Homa Bay town has three members of staff, the team partners with non-governmental organisations, mostly involved in girl-child rights, to execute their duties.

"We are lucky to have many partners who have the same goal as us. We work together in achieving them," Ms Okeyo says.

Others partners offer legal services to people whose rights have been violated.

"There are those which operate safe houses where people in danger can run to while their cases are being addressed," the gender officer adds.

More funds

Ms Okeyo says her office has close ties with the police and the Ministry of Health where most gender issues are reported before they reach the department.

These activities are extended to two sub-counties, Ndhiwa and Rachuonyo East, where similar offices are being run.

Other sub-counties, Rangwe, Rachuonyo North, Suba, Rachuonyo South and Mbita do not have gender offices, forcing residents in need of service from the department to travel or seek the same from the State Department of Gender.

"The county understands that the gender issues are spread all over and need resources to run activities smoothly. We, therefore, appeal for more funds to factor in the gender programs," Mr Orude says.

"We also do not have enough trained social workers to render services to the members of the public," he says, noting that the county plans to create more gender offices at the ward level.

By Moraa Obiria, Benson Amadala, Angeline Ochieng and George Odiwuor