By Samburu County Communications Office
Samburu County Department of Culture, Gender and Social Services, is in the process of developing two critical policies; gender policy and anti- beading policy. Gender policy will focus on gender mainstreaming while anti-beading policy will be more of an educative policy that will spark community dialogue to free the young Samburu girls from the bondage of negative beading exercise by warriors from their clans which undermine their dignity. The policies are not punitive but will provide a roadmap and act as a guiding tool in the areas of gender mainstreaming and eradication of negative beading exercise by warriors.
The review of the draft policies brought together MCAs, technical officers from Samburu County Government and County Assembly, National Government, Kenya Law Reform Commission, and non- state actors. Among the non-state actors represented were WFP, World Vision, Afya Timiza, Child Fund, Samburu Youth Network among others.
A lean team is spearheading the completion of the two draft policies before subjecting them to public participation and validation. The policies will be forwarded to Cabinet and County Assembly for adoption after completion of public participation and validation.
The Acting CEC Member for Culture, Gender, and Social Services Irene Senei who presided over the weeklong workshop thanked the WFP for facilitating the workshop and appealed for concerted efforts between the national government, county government, and non-state actors. The CEC Member expressed optimism that the development of the two policies will be completed soon.
