Bomet: Cabinet Secretary for Interior and National Administration, Kipchumba Murkomen, has attributed the high rate of Gender Based Violence (GBV) cases in Bomet and other counties to deep-rooted cultural beliefs, where domestic violence is considered a normal corrective disciplinary measure on those perceived to be errant. He said that while women battering was the most prevalent form of GBV, as held in outdated traditional belief that women were subservient to men, in unreported cases, some men were also suffering in silence for being battered by women, for fear of reprisal from fellow men and the society.
According to Kenya News Agency, speaking during a Ministerial Public Outreach Forum dubbed 'Jukwaa la Usalama' in Bomet County, CS Murkomen decried the rising cases of gender-based violence in the country and asked members of the public to steer away from the practice, but instead seek alternative and amicable dispute resolution mechanisms. He took particular exception to femicide and women battering where the community treated the vice as a normal 'disciplinary' matter, rather than criminal, hence the continued practice unabated.
'It is unfortunate that even if a victim of wife battering cries out aloud for help from her house, those in the neighborhood will ignore the calls of distress once they discover it's the husband beating her up on flimsy grounds that she is being corrected from her errant ways-anarudushwa kwa line,' the CS observed.
The Juwaa la Usalama is an initiative by the Ministry of Interior, which brings together members of the public, National Government Administrative Officers (NGAOS), the police, and other stakeholders within counties to exchange ideas and help tackle the challenges in security and administration in the country. The CS is traversing all the counties in earnest to publicize the 'Jukwaa la Usalama' initiative.
In Bomet, to help arrest GBV, CS Murkomen advised members of the public to always remain vigilant to not only help out their neighbors in distress over GBV, but also to report such cases to the police and other relevant government and human rights organs for redress, so as to help stump out the vice.
On the cases of defilement of young girls and rape, Murkomen noted that in some cases, driven by cultural undertones, families of the victims opted to have the cases solved behind the scenes in 'Kangaroo courts', defeating the Legal Justice System, thereby letting the perpetrators scot-free, after arriving at some monetary or material settlement.
The CS said that this tendency not only denied the victims of rape or defilement their justice but also deprived society of the much-needed deterrent administrative action by way of correctional action on the part of the perpetrator, thereby letting errant characters loose to prey on yet another victim.
He abhorred a situation where victims and their families were compromised to remain silent instead of seeking justice through the legal system, asking the National Government Administrators and the police to be alert and clamp down on such unfortunate and inhuman arrangements which only went a long way in denigrating human dignity on the part of the victims and society at large.
At the same time, the CS advised men who were in abusive marriages, being battered by their wives to come out and openly report the cases so as to get help, without the fear of being stigmatized. Murkomen urged members of the public to always report such cases to the police whom he asked to adhere to legal procedures for the sake of justice.