Governor asks his community to stop discriminating against widows

Taita Taveta Governor Granton Samboja has warned the community against discriminating widows. Owing to the suffering that most widows undergo after losing their husbands, the community has been called upon to live in harmony with widows.

According to Hope Wawuda who is a widow from Wundanyi sub-county and a secretary of Taita Taveta Widows Association, many widows are kicked out of their matrimonial homes moments after losing their husbands.

Many have lost documents, sources of income and property as greedy in-laws try to get a share of the wealth of their deceased kin. 

Some of their kids are forced to drop out of school due to lack of school fees hence their lives are totally mixed up. Speaking when he hosted them for the Christmas and new year celebrations at his home in Mwakishimba, Werugha Ward, last week, Samboja observed that the community and family have a role to play for the widows to lead a better life.

"As a Christian, this festive season is not only about celebrating the birth of Christ and the new year celebrations but also to assist the less privileged members of the community. We have a responsibility to take care of the widows.

The County boss extended his generosity by sharing both materially and emotionally with thousands of widows from different parts of the county as they engaged on various practical solutions that can be adopted by the devolved unit for the benefit of the widows.

“We'll carry out a fundraiser to assist widows come up with a revolving fund that can be used as startup capital for those willing to venture into entrepreneurship or undertake any other activities they wish to engage in," he said.

Samboja challenged the widows to join hands to help uplift their lives by carrying out development within their circles and urged them to join the Taita Taveta Women SACCO. 

Over 6,000 women have already joined the SACCO and are contributing Sh10 a day through a program designed to integrate women.

This makes a total of 1.8 million which is available for women to undertake business.