By John Kariuki
Principal Secretary for Gender, Ann Wangombe, has emerged as a formidable force in Kenya’s quest to eradicate Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV), spearheading a transformative state response anchored in empathy, justice, and institutional reform. At the fulcrum of this paradigm shift is POLICARE—a pioneering initiative by the National Police Service that redefines the contours of survivor care in the country.
“POLICARE is not merely a program,” PS Wangombe asserts. “It is a clarion call to reimagine the architecture of justice—one that restores dignity, safeguards agency, and humanizes the path to healing for survivors of violence.”
POLICARE (Police Care) is a comprehensive, survivor-centric model that coalesces law enforcement, medical services, psychosocial support, and legal aid into a singular, integrated framework. This revolutionary construct eliminates bureaucratic labyrinths and circumvents secondary victimization, ensuring survivors are not subjected to the indignity of repeating their trauma across multiple institutions.
Recognizing that the police often serve as the initial gateway into the criminal justice system, PS Wangombe has championed a shift in policing ethos—from reactive enforcement to proactive care. Under the POLICARE model, officers are reoriented to prioritize confidentiality, consent, psychological safety, and prompt redress, embodying a new culture of trauma-informed response.
“This initiative embodies a rupture with the inertia of the past,” PS Wangombe affirms. “It anchors state institutions in moral responsibility and compels us to uphold the sanctity of every human life.”
The POLICARE initiative is fortified by a constellation of progressive legal instruments, including the Victim Protection Act (2014), the Protection Against Domestic Violence Act (2015), the National Policy on Prevention and Response to GBV, and the Policare Policy (2021). These frameworks collectively entrench a rights-based approach to justice, emphasizing survivor autonomy, expedited accountability, and structural redress.
Far from being a peripheral initiative, POLICARE is emblematic of Kenya’s broader aspiration to instantiate a gender-just society. PS Wangombe is unequivocal in her resolve: “We must institutionalize compassion. We must systematize care. We must elevate the survivor from invisibility to centrality in our legal consciousness.”
She is now calling upon county governments, judiciary actors, civil society, and international partners to bolster the institutionalization and nationwide rollout of POLICARE centers. “This model must not remain a prototype,” she insists. “It must become the national standard.”
As the call to extinguish the scourge of GBV echoes across the country, PS Wangombe’s stewardship of POLICARE represents more than bureaucratic reform—it is a moral reckoning, a societal awakening, and an unwavering declaration that no survivor shall be abandoned, and no injustice shall be obscured.
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