In a bid to provide safe health, rights, and well-being to women and girls from the drought’s outcome, the UNFPA has distributed maternal health and dignity kits across Kenya.
These kits contain essential hygiene supplies for women and girls, items to support new mothers, a solar-powered torch, and a whistle to call for help if needed.
UNFPA also provides free referrals to hospital and ambulance transfers for women with obstetric and newborn emergencies.
According to reports, women and girls have been bearing the brunt of the worst drought experienced in Kenya for 40 years, which is intensifying the risk of sexual exploitation, violence, and abuse.
Ms Ingolan is speaking at an outreach session in the village of Lokapararai, in Turkana county. The session, supported by the UN reproductive rights agency (UNFPA), aims to bring sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence protection services to women and girls affected by the prolonged drought currently ravaging the region.
Usually, women and girls are sent to fetch water; because of the drought, they have to walk even further and wait for hours at boreholes.
This puts them at greater risk of violence at a time when hostilities among communities desperate to secure scarce resources are mounting.
With hundreds of thousands of Kenyans forced to move in search of survival, vulnerable women and girls have little to no access to critical health facilities or protection and support services – at the very time they need them the most.
There is evidence that gender-based violence, female genital mutilation, and child marriage have risen since the drought, as families marry off their girls to pay for food or cattle.
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