Empower all to fight domestic violence

According to Action Against Violence, a community-based organisation working in Kole District, 48 cases of domestic violence have been registered between June and September in Bala Sub-county alone. But that is just a fraction of the problem countrywide.

In 2013, for instance, reports indicated that there were 2,461 victims and 1,339 cases of domestic violence. Earlier in 2012, police reported that there were 9,278 victims and 2,793 cases of domestic violence.

While commenting about the rising cases of domestic violence in Lango Sub-region recently, Mr Caesar Alaju, the executive director of Action Against Violence, said the sub-county community development offices are not well equipped to conduct awareness on the dangers of domestic violence as mandated by the law. Indicators that domestic violence is on the increase in the 21st Century are alarming.

And there are a number of reasons cited for the violence, which include ignorance, poverty and the struggle for land, one of the important assets people in Lango have after a 20-year devastating war.
But even more than this, police say, domestic violence increases during harvesting period.

This is because while women harvest, men want to assume ownership of the money. And instead of spending the money on their family in form of, for instance, paying school fees for their children, the men see it as an opportunity to indulge in irresponsible drinking causing unending fights.
This state of affairs can change only if leaders countrywide and activists make a deliberate effort to change it. Community policing to weed out the perpetrators should be emphasised.

Government should empower men and women through organisations that avail them with soft loans to improve their living conditions and fight poverty, which is a major cause of violence.
The role of sensitisation should not be ignored given that some people are ignorant about their rights and responsibilities. As such, community development offices who are charged with awareness at sub-county level, should be funded to make them functional.

This should extend to the police, who are meant to keep law and order. Locals complain that some police officers charge them for fuel to effect arrests when they go to report domestic violence cases. Yet the highest number of domestic violence cases are most prevalent in poor communities that cannot afford such costs.
Most importantly, the long arm of the law should catch perpetrators.

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