Stakeholders in Uasin Gishu County have been encouraged to champion for the rights of widows.
This was one of the key messages during celebrations to mark this year’s International Widows’ Day (IWD) held at Uasin Gishu County government ground.
Addressing the event that attracted about 2,000 widows from the devolved unit’s six sub-counties, County Executive Committee Member (CECM) in charge of Education, Vocational Training, Gender, and Social Services Engineer Lucy Ng’endo explained some of the county government’s initiatives directed towards improving the widows’ welfare and living standards.
She disclosed that the county government had affirmatively employed several widows across all job cadres, as one the measures aimed at addressing some of the challenges they face.
“Besides the employment of widows in various job cadres, our Governor Jonathan Bii Chelilim has been keen on ensuring the rolling out and implementation of programmes geared toward boosting the group’s sources of livelihoods and living standards,” Ng’endo told the gathering.
The CECM cited the devolved unit’s prioritization of education bursaries for learners from orphaned backgrounds.
“You will agree with me when it comes to issuance of education bursaries, our county government gives priority to learners with orphaned backgrounds,” noted Ng’endo, adding the initiative was meant to reduce the widows’ burden, besides ensuring the learners focused on their studies with minimal interruptions.
Implementation of the ambitious school milk programme targeting Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) learners was also cited as another strategy aimed at assisting the widows.
The initiative, which was rolled out two years ago, provides free 250ml milk packets twice a week to about 40,000 ECDE learners to boost nutrition and retention.
On her part, Health CECM Janet Kurgat said the devolved unit had pumped a total of Sh67 million into the procurement of drugs and medical equipment in this financial year.
“Our health facilities across all the sub-counties are currently stocked with adequate drugs,” said Mrs Kurgat, who encouraged the widows to visit nearby facilities for treatment whenever faced with medical problems.
The CECM urged social workers under the devolved unit to enhance service delivery toward improvement of the welfare of widows in the region.
The duo urged concerned stakeholders in the region to initiate programmes aimed at elimination of challenges faced by the group.
Notably, that was the first time the global event was hosted by the county government since the inception of devolution.
A section of the participants hailed the county government for what was variously described as a special recognition of the group.
“Until today’s colourful event, widows in Uasin Gishu had rarely been recognized by key stakeholders,” claimed Mrs. Naomi Irungu, an ambassador of widows in the county.
International Women’s Day is a global holiday dedicated to celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women while actively campaigning for accelerated gender parity.
The United Nation’s theme for the year was “Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls,”
The colourful occasion was graced by the area Deputy Governor (DG) Evans Kapkea.
by Maurice Aluda
