LREB to celebrate International Day of Girl Child in Kericho

The Lake Regional Economic Bloc (LREB) counties will hold celebrations to mark the International Day of the Girl Child 2023 on October 11 under the auspice of the Kericho County government, the convenor of the Gender Pillar at LREB.

LREB Chief Executive Officer Victor Nyagaya said that the celebrations will be held at Kenya Highland Evangelical University in Kericho, which will be preceded by a panel town hall dialogue on Tuesday evening.

Nyagaya announced that the theme for the celebrations is "Invest in Girls' Rights: Our Leadership, Our Wellbeing," with the agenda being to take stock of the milestones in addressing the plight of the girl child in the LREB counties.

"Specific focus to Lake Region Economic Bloc will be on the triple threat of gender-based violence, HIV and teenage pregnancies whose prevalence threatens the inclusion of girls' rights in the bloc," he said.

First Lady Rachael Ruto will be the chief guest during the event that is expected to attract 1,500 participants from LREB counties, the national government and other stakeholders.

Nyagaya said that key topics to be discussed include adolescent health promotion, investing in girls' rights, affirmative action, the role of youth in shaping current and future leadership and gender policy and regulatory reforms.

The CEO said that LREB leaders are committed to rallying local and national leadership to help in achieving gender-responsive policy development and implementation since by empowering the girl child, the whole family and community benefits.

"We recognize the need to invest in interventions that shape the current girl child into a better future leader. This is because meaningful participation of girls in decisions that affect their lives is key to breaking the cycle of discrimination and violence, empowering young girls to be inspired," said Nyagaya.

He regretted that despite the milestones in policy and regulatory reforms that promote gender mainstreaming issues, challenges still bedevil LREB counties, majorly emanating from abject poverty, which manifests itself in the triple threat of illiteracy, financial exclusion, female genital mutilation and early marriage.

Nyagaya said that poverty in the region affects 78 per cent of the population, which is malnourished and deprived of basic needs with other structural orientations hindering the progress of gender mainstreaming, including an unbalanced strategic vision to development because of lack of commitment to a bottom-up approach in decision-making, inclusion and sustainability that is gender-responsive.

"A worrying statistic is the high teenage pregnancy rate in the region with 10 out of 14 LREB member counties recording prevalence higher than the national teen pregnancy rate of 15 per cent with the worst affected being Homa Bay (23 per cent), Migori (23 per cent), Siaya (21 per cent), Bungoma (19 per cent), Trans Nzoia, Busia (18 per cent), Nyamira (16 per cent), Kericho, Kakamega, Kisumu (15 per cent)," he said.

Teenage pregnancy is a proxy indicator for HIV: Four counties in the region account for 52 per cent of the HIV burden in Kenya. In Homabay, Migori, Siaya and Kisumu, 98 adolescents get infected with HIV weekly (MoH, August 2022).

Further, 13 counties, among them Kisumu, Kisii, Narok, Nandi, Laikipia, and Tana River, account for 72 per cent of all new infections. Kericho, Kisii, Trans Nzoia, Kakamega, and Nandi are recording concerning rates of new infections among adolescent children.

Key to this is the need for county assemblies to pass legislation that would enable county governments to commit a pre-determined percentage of their annual budgets to affirmative action while fulfilling the constitutional requirements.

Nyagaya called for a multi-agency action framework to bring together national government agencies, county governments, and development partners to pull resources together towards the success of affirmative action interventions in the region.

The event will bring together the leadership of the national and county governments to evaluate and give recommendations on a joint way forward for the promotion of the rights of the girl-child in LREB.

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