Thirty-three girls and women were murdered through acts of gender-based violence between January and July this year, the Counting Dead Women Kenya database shows.
Counting Dead Women Kenya tracks the number of femicide cases reported by the Kenyan media. The figures reported this year are a significant drop from 2019, where 60 cases were reported between January and June.
Despite the government and various lobbies stating the alarming increase in gender-based violence reports, the database states it has been tracking fewer cases, compared to 2019.
By the end of last December, the database had recorded 108 women murdered through acts of physical and sexual gender-based violence.
"In September, we only reported one death caused to a woman by intimate partner violence. This is the lowest we have ever reported. We still believe that with women and girls locked at home with their violent partners, then the risk of them dying in the hands of their abuser is much higher," shows the database via Facebook.
For instance, the national gender-based violence hotline 1195, registered 201 cases between February and March.
In three weeks, the numbers went up from 86 in February to 115 in March, the month President Uhuru Kenyatta issued a directive for the 7pm-5am curfew. The latest data from the Gender ministry states over 800 women and girls have been called into the 1195 hotline to report violence.
A statement from Kobia showed the leading forms of violence are physical assault, psychological torture, and defilement.
"Women in quarantine face increased risks of intimate partner violence. Girls staying home from school are vulnerable to forms of abuse such as defilement and female genital mutilation," Kobia said.
"The economic dependence and marginalisation of women make them more vulnerable, especially amid a pandemic."
Fida Kenya, a women's lobby that champions gender justice, also launched a gender-based violence hotline, and in their latest data they reported to have received 289 cases as of May 3.
