Kilifi Intensifies Campaign Against Online Gender -Based Violence

By Mbungu Harrison

Email, thecoastnewspaper@gmail.com

Zamara Foundation in partnership with the Kilifi County Gender Department has launched a public awareness campaign on Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV).

According to Lillian Samba Mwalicha, Zamara Foundation Officer in Kilifi, the campaign aims to create awareness on how the public can confront and deal with the new forms of gender-based violence in communities.

“It’s a new form of GBV and we want the community to be informed about the vice and how they can report and tackle it,” said Mwalicha.

The organization says the vice is rampant online where people are sexually trolled, contributing to GBV. As part of the campaign, community health promoters have been trained to continue educating the public at the grassroots level.

Betty Mtuweta, Zamara Foundation Programs Coordinator, said existing laws must be strengthened to deal with the emerging threat.

“We have laws to fight TFGBV but we are seeing the new form of GBV is becoming rampant. So we are asking Kilifi to heighten the laws to protect women and children from the vice,” said Mtuweta.

Kilifi County Gender Director Mwangome Shumaa said the county government is partnering with various stakeholders to end the vice.

“There are a lot of technology-related GBV cases which we as a government are aware of and we are making all interventions to end it,” he said.

According to the director, women and children are the most affected. Forms of TFGBV include online sexual exploitation, cyberbullying, and non-consensual sharing of images.

“We are partnering with other agencies to boost our reach to grassroots communities to get the information and justice for those violated,” he said.

The awareness caravan brought together community-level representatives, the Kilifi County Government, local administration, and non-governmental organizations.

Some of the community health promoters engaged in the campaign have now moved to the grassroots to educate the public on how to access justice when violated.

Patience Zawadi Kadenge, a community health promoter, said many people are still not aware of how to report cases and get justice.

“We want to impact them with knowledge about this form of TFGBV so that they can protect themselves and know when and where to report,” said Saum Mwadime, a resident of Kibaoni area.