Bishop Patrick Ngigi and his wife Josephine Ngigi are walking 168 kilometers from Narok town to Nairobi, to advocate against Gender-Based Violence (GBV), as they seek money to protect vulnerable girls.
We caught up with the couple in the Ntulele area, 32 kilometres from Narok town, walking with a determination to fight the GBV monster, which is not only prominent in Narok county but the entire country.
The duo is the founder of an organization dubbed ‘Mission with a Vision’ that they started 27 years ago, to rescue Maa girls from early marriages, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and teenage pregnancies.
Out of their efforts, they have been able to save thousands of girls from cut and early marriages as the girls have been escaping to their rescue centre, where they find comfort and can continue with their education.
Due to hard economic times and the increasing number of girls in the rescue centre, the spiritual leader, in the company of his wife, decided to take a 13-day walk to sensitize the members of the public on the retrogressive practices as they seek money to maintain the girls they already have at the centre.
“We left Narok town on 11th December and we are targeting to get to Gender Offices in Nairobi on 23rd December. We will have spent 13 days on the road and we believe we will have achieved our target,” he noted.
The duo runs two centres, one in Narok town and another at the Naireserasai area in Narok Central Sub County, both with a population of 128 girls, who came to seek refuge after they were involved in GBV cases.
He lamented the increasing GBV among married people where couples fight, leaving their children to suffer due to their differences.
“We have seen couples fighting, which causes their families to be unstable. This makes the children vulnerable to early marriages, and teenage pregnancies, while others end up in the streets,” he said.
Bishop Ngigi said the centre mainly deals with girl children, as they are the most affected, where they rescue vulnerable teenage mothers, girls who have escaped from FGM and those on the verge of being married off.
The rescued girls remain in the safe houses as they continue with their education until they are finally reconciled with their families.
“The organization works closely with the Department of Children Services, who help us to identify the vulnerable girls and are also key in helping to reconcile the children back to their families,” he said.
The mission has seen many girls become professionals and contribute positively to the development of the society.
“Many girls we rescued are now teachers, medics, social workers, police officers among others. That is why we are determined to continue with this course until our society is free from GBV,” said Bishop Ngigi.
His wife Josephine reiterated that supporting a girls’ education is empowering the society hence encouraging all girls to focus on education to become great people in the society.
She called on society to shun retrogressive cultural practices that hinder girls from achieving their dreams and instead encouraged them to support the education of girls.
Josphine lauded President William Ruto for appointing Soipan Tuya as the Defense Cabinet Secretary, saying her appointment motivates many Maa girls to continue pursuing their dreams.
The couple called on the government to support charitable children's institutions as they play a key role in ensuring every child enjoys their right to education and living a decent life.
In the year 2022, the Kenya Health Demographic Survey (KHDS) ranked Narok county position one in the country in teenage pregnancies at 48 per cent.
However, following rampant sensitization campaigns and the collaboration of different stakeholders from the National, County and non-state actors, the number of teenage pregnancies dropped to 28 per cent in the year 2022.
Current reports from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) show that the number of teenage pregnancies could have dropped further to 25 per cent.
According to a KNBS report in 2022, about 34 per cent of women in Kenya have experienced physical violence since age 15 and another 13 per cent of women have experienced sexual violence at some point in their lives.
The walk comes at the end of 16 days of activism against GBV, which runs from 25th November to 10th December to raise awareness of GBV and mobilize action to end GBV.
