Bungoma County gender director Anne Barasa has revealed that a total of 253 sexual- gender based violence cases reported in 2025 are before court. She further adds that gender based violence cases in Bungoma are on the rise calling for concerted efforts to address the issue.
She states that her office’s work is to coordinate women empowerment programs and the fight against gender based violence (GBV).
Speaking in Bungoma at the gender sensitivity training that brought together stakeholders, Barasa said according to the Kenya Bureau of Statistics 2022, the rate of gender based violence and other forms of GBV was at 62 percent, implying that out of 10 women, 6 women they have been violated in one way or the other.
“Bungoma is one of the leading counties in terms of gender based violence cases in the country,” she noted.
According to the report by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) 2025, 253 sexual gender based violence cases are ongoing before Bungoma court.
The cases are distributed in Bungoma Courts as follows: Bungoma law court (92), Sirisia Law Court (42), Webuye Court (49) and Kimilili Law court (80).
“Those are cases of young girls and boys that have been defiled at family level, because 70 percent of gender based violence takes place at family level,” she said.
Ms. Barasa also asked the community to look into the issue of gender based violence.
“As the government we have realized that the strategy to fight gender based violence to go preventative, because when we focus much on response we shall be responding to cases that have already taken place,” she said.
The gender director adds that the government is partnering with organizations like the Echo Network Africa Foundation (ENAF) to go to the community and train members.
“We are running programs in the community called positive parenting, currently 60 champions of positive parenting are being trained where they would go out to train the community on positive parenting,” she said.
Between 2016 and July 2023, Bungoma recorded 9,089 cases of sexual and gender-based violence involving girls aged 10–17, compared to 18,510 nationally.
The 2022 Kenya Demographic Health Survey (KDHS) reported that 62 percent of Bungoma women have experienced physical or sexual violence, while the county accounts for 19 percent of all teenage pregnancies in Kenya.
She rallied parents to be careful with their children especially during this long holiday.
“The children are even more at risk when they are at home than when they are at school, because a lot of abuse takes place when they are at home by their uncles, neighbours among others,” she said.
