Former Nominated Senator Gloria Orwoba has come out to give suggestions on how the Ksh100 million that was in the past issued by the president to fight against femicide could have been used, since according to her it was wrongly used.

Speaking during a local radio interview on Monday, August 25, 2025, she explained that the allocation could have been used more effectively to strengthen the fight against sexual and gender-based violence.

In her view, the money should have been channelled towards resourcing SGBV courts, which continue to face serious challenges, including understaffing and lack of psychosocial support for judges who handle heavy and traumatising cases. This, she said, would have fast-tracked the handling of sexual harassment cases far better than funding processions and public walks.

“Ksh100M could have pushed our SGBV courts; we could have resourced our courts. We have very few judges in those courts, and they have to go through a big break because they deal with such heavier matters; they need to go through their psychosocial support. We could have used that money in that, and that could have fast-tracked all the cases of sexual harassment rather than people doing walks against femicide,” Orwoba stated.

Her suggestion

According to Orwoba, women leaders who were supposed to oversee the good use of these funds chose advocacy over proper utilisation of this allocation; they decided to speak to survivors of GBV and organise gatherings under the banner of fighting femicide, insisting that such approaches offered little tangible relief.

She argued that even allocating 30 per cent of the funds towards the purchase of rape kits, an area that has long faced shortages, would have had a greater impact. While acknowledging that advocacy has its place, she stressed that actual victims of gender-based violence needed real, practical support rather than symbolic activities. And such relief could have been achieved had the funds meant for femicide prevention been properly utilised.

“All these walks you see women doing, talking to women and doing walks and gatherings, talking to survivors of GBV – that is not appropriate. That is not what we needed now, even if we could have just taken 30 cents and put it towards rape kits, which is a challenge. I am not saying that advocacy is not a good thing but we could have given the actual victims some form of relief,” he added