Sandra Wekesa @wekesa_sandra

The thought of setting up or running a safe house always seemed like a complex suggestion to Njeri Wa Mwigi.

Although she had always wanted to give back to the society, her mind was majorly clouded with her career in interior designing, which doubled up as her full time job.

But, with concerns about the spike in gender based violence and femicide cases, the mother of five children and four cats saw no better way to give back to the community by housing women who were in distress in her own house.

“I remember in the beginning, I would pick several women and house them while they sorted themselves out to start off on their own.

It wasn’t easy then because we would get so many women looking for assistance.

However, the situation became so easy to crack with the help of my partner Stella. That is when Usikimye was born,” says Mama Rescue, as she is always known.

Usikimye is an organisation that deals with Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV). It is mandated to act as a one-stop care centre that provides comprehensive services to survivors.

Usikimye played a major role in delivery of women out of this situation, which was worsened by the pandemic.

Initially, Wa Mwigi would receive one or two calls per week, but the number doubled to four or five per night. 

“We mostly received distress calls or inbox messages on our Facebook Page. We then followed up with a call to the survivor or Good Samaritan that had placed the call and went to the location depending on the incident.

Depending on the severity, we would take the survivors to hospital, report to police and take them to our safe house or to a children’s home,” she explains.

Some comprehensive services to SGBV survivors this includes psychological support, medical evaluation and treatment, emergency contraceptives for female of reproductive ages, forensic analysis, trauma counselling and transitional safe rooms.

The safe house also shelters children that are victims of sexual and physical abuse. 

“For the children who live at the safe house, we ensure that they receive their own specialised services that support both them and their parents,” Wa Migwi says.

On top of that, they play a major role emergency rescues for women that have been raped and victims of domestic or intimate partner violence.

They have been able to secure residence in Eldoret and in different areas in Nairobi. 

“GBV has always been a taboo topic, shrouded in shame and secrecy. No one wanted to willingly speak about it, yet it was happening and its victims never have a space to talk about it. Someone needed to be an advocate and voice to survivors,” she added.

Despite their prevention efforts as an organisation, Wa Mwigi still believes that there are many things the society needs to address for their efforts to become a success. 

“Success in our case is seeing a perpetrator jailed. We have far too many rapists and molesters walking free due to cases taking too long, easy bail terms making them go back into society and repeat the same crimes.