A dialogue was conducted in Kinango sub-county in a village known as Vigurungani. It took place on the 29th October 2021 and a total of 30 women were reached. The women were from different neighbouring villages which included Vigurungani, Kisimani, Kideri, Mwangoni, Tata, Makuluni and Shambini Villages.

We had discussions where women openly speak about the GBV and SRHR issues in Kinango and find ways to collectively address these issues.

The dialogue revealed the types of GBV prevalent in the area and their possible causes as follows;

      Types of GBV

  • Domestic Violence
  • Sodomization of young boys
  • Rape/defilement
  • Teenage pregnancies
  • Child marriages

Causes of GBV

  • Poverty; where the parents marry off their young daughter for the bridal price or young girls engage in sexual activities with men to get favours/gifts because they lack some basic needs back at home and because these girls have little or no knowledge of SRHR they end up getting pregnant or married early.
  • Harmful cultural norms like husbands disciplining their wives is found to be ok. This leads to domestic violence.
  • Ignorance and illiteracy; the people are not aware of their rights neither do they know the rights of others and so there is a lot of violations.
  • Lack of sex education, when upbringing their kids, parents do not educate them about consent and other relevant sexual information which leads to so many GBV and SRHR issues later in life.

Challenges faced by GBV victims

  • Out of court settlement; most of the cases are settled at home resulting to victims not getting any justice
  • Corruption of police/court officers; the officers ask for bribes in order to process case files 
  • Time; cases taken to court drag for a long time such that the victims end up dropping the cases

There is a lot of women violation going on and it’s time the community stood up and forge a way forward to address the issue.

During the discussions about SRHR, it was agreed that children should start to receive sex education as early as they start to talk and understand things.

Recommendations:

  • More sensitization for the community
  • Follow up on cases is necessary