The residents of South West Sakwa location are appealing to the government to waive medical fees for treatment victims of sexually violence to ease their pain.
According to the residents, high fees charged for both treatment and filling of P3 forms was obstructing justice as majority of the victims are too poor to afford the cost, making the assailants to walk scott free.
The residents were speaking at Kapiyo chief’s camp during a mentorship program organized by Teen Safe Haven, targeting local girls aged between 10 to 25 years.
South West Sakwa location chief, Peter Obedo said it was not enough for relevant authorities to tell the public that defilement cases are handled freely while in actual sense, the public are made to spend in medical facilities.
“Let it not be in papers. It should be actualized. The P3 forms should be absolutely free of charge and the process of filling it should not take long” said chief Obedo.
He further lamented that the back-and-forth journey to various government offices in search of justice for the victims was also undermining efforts to seek justice.
The chief hailed the local youths who organized the mentorship session, adding that it will help improve education transition rates in the location.
“With such initiative, we are likely to see 100% transition in the coming year” he said.
Teen Safe Haven officials, Isaac Ochieng Atego and Quinter Onyando said the event was mooted after realizing that most girls in the area that is along the shores of Lake Victoria become casualties of teenage pregnancies and drop out of school.
“We come from around the lake and teenage pregnancies are rampant” said Atego adding “this is one of our ways of preventing more casualties in the coming future”.
Onyando said the mentorship program focused on sexual abuse, teenage pregnancy, HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted diseases.
She said that the program was working on bringing on board the boy child in future and called for support from well-wishers to enable them achieve their target.
By Philip Onyango
