Kisumu County Assembly session in progress. [File, Standard]
Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) from five counties in Nyanza have renewed their commitment to enhancing access to reproductive health for women and youth in the region.
MCAs from Kisumu, Migori, Kisii, Homa Bay and Siaya said they will fight for more budgetary allocation to the Sexual and Reproductive Health of young people.
Nominated Kisumu MCA Farida Salim said the counties have achieved many of the commitments made but more still needs to be done “implementation of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights laws and policies, gap in skills, knowledge and understanding of health issues especially reproductive health by MCAs and other leaders” to better represent the issues of their constituents.”
The recommitment meeting was convened by the Network for Adolescent and Youth of Africa (NAYA) and the Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) of young people in Kenya.
The MCAs came under the banner of South Western Kenya Inter-County Sexual and Reproductive Health MCA Champions Network and Victor Rasugu, Executive Director NAYA Kenya lauded it as “an example to the rest of the country on what true collaboration in the interest of constituents should look like.”
The lobbying by MCAs has resulted in Sh12.6 million allocations to reproductive health in Migori County and the launch of the Migori County Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Policy.
NAYA is currently implementing a five-year programme dubbed “Power to Youth” in Migori, Siaya, Homa Bay, Kajiado and Nairobi counties with the goal of eliminating teen pregnancy, child marriage, sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), and retrogressive cultural practices like female genital mutilation (FGM).