Patriarchal attitudes and misogynistic practices render laws against sexual and gender-based violence meaningless, an NGO manager has noted.
Aids Healthcare Foundation project manager Faith Ndungu says despite laws and policies, SGBV continues to remain prevalent.
On Monday, AHF Kenya together with the Nairobi City County will hold protests against SGBV.
Dubbed 'Silent Protest', demonstrators intend to bring awareness on SGBV and laws around the matter, as well as the need for survivors to report such cases.
The demos will be led by Nairobi Governor aspirant Esther Passaris. Protesters will marched from Uhuru Park's Freedom Corner to Jevanjee Gardens for a rally.
Ndungu pointed out that research indicated that in Kenya 14 per cent of women between 15-49 years old had experienced sexual and gender based violence.
She also said 11.5
per cent of women have experienced both physical and sexual based violence.
“In 2014, reports showed that 47 per cent of women have gone through either physical or sexual based violence,” Ndugu said.
Ndungu has called upon proper awareness to victims of SGBV to come out and seek assistance both health and legal and help reduce the cases.
“The culture of silence is a great hindrance to tackling the problem hence the tag line of the campaign to ask people to speak up over the violence.” she said.
She said the purpose of the Silent Protest is to draw public attention to rape and to demand the stop of this form of abuse and better services - both treatment and justice - for survivors.
The protest also aims to create a forum to stop victim-blaming and begin talking about the underlying issues they undergo.
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