• According to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2014, the main perpetrators of physical violence against women are husbands, whereas the main perpetrators against men are parents, teachers, and others.
• According to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2014, 14 per cent of women and 6 per cent of men aged 15-49 report having experienced sexual violence at least once in their lifetime.
Image: STEPHEN ASTARIKO
For over 10 years, Catherine Noha 39, has been battling domestic violence from her husband.
Having been married in a Catholic Church, Noha knew that whatever the case, divorce would not be part of their lives.
“We loved each other dearly in fact, our love sprang up even before I got pregnant,” she tells the Star.
But Noha who now has two children,- a boy and a girl- says that she only realised that her husband was temperamental later in their marriage.
“He could get agitated and start having a funny and scary face. With this, I knew that something was not right. Then one day I made a very slight mistake and he decided to pounce on me like a mad dog,” she said as she shed a tear.
Noha knew that in as much as this was the first time she was hit, this man was going to hit her when he felt like.
“We talked about it and he apologised cursing the devil for the act. But after a few months he did the same too. So I decided to report him to the police,” she said.
“He was arrested and I was given an OB number. But after a while he was released.”
She notes that her husband, who is a drunkard, kept on abusing her and yet he did not contribute to the family’s expenses.
“I did all the work. He works but i don't seem to know where he takes all his money after earning it,” she said.
But with all this, Noha still loved her husband.
“The latest attack happened in January 2021 when he beat me because of a very flimsy mistake. I was pouring tea for him then it mistakenly poured on his feet,” she said.
“He immediately took the sugar dish and began hitting me with it as I tried to shield myself. That was the last straw.”
Noha said she no longer wants anything to do with her husband adding that she has filed for a divorce.
Violence is a daily reality for women and girls across Kenya.
According to government data, 45 per cent of women and girls aged 15 to 49 have experienced physical violence and 14 per cent have experienced sexual violence.
According to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2014, the main perpetrators of physical violence against women are husbands, whereas the main perpetrators against men are parents, teachers, and others.
A domestic violence survivor Njeri Wanjohi* said the man became a stalker and violent.
Wanjohi said this man Peter was a very charming man with all the features that a woman would desire.
“The tall dark and handsome kind of guy who I was smitten with became a monster. After the engagement, he helped me look for a house and he was very particular about finding one in Buruburu estate in Nairobi,” she said.
She later found out that the house they had found was for his first wife with whom they had separated. She did not bother however to ask reasons for separation.
“But then i kept feeling that something was wrong with the relationship because this man was a narcissist. This man kept on coming to the house and leaving his belongings one after the other until he ended up staying with me,” she said.
“Since I was independent, he started demanding that I give him money because he had lost his job. “
After all this, Peter started becoming insecure stalking Wanjohi everywhere she could go including the toilet to ensure that she did not meet any man or talk to any.
In March 2016, Wanjohi gave birth to her twins and that was the genesis of the violence. Peter claimed that he was not being given the attention that he needed.
“One day he asked me for money and since i did not have any, i told him politely that i had run out of cash. That day he came back home and sat on the seat the whole evening looking mad. I did not talk to him so I just went to sleep,” she said.
“The next morning at around 9am i knew there was trouble when he came to my room where i was sleeping with twins to stir up trouble.”
Wanjohi said she left the room to go and prepare some milk for the baby when Peter followed her to the kitchen.
Peter asked Wanjohi why she was neglecting him and concentrating on the two babies.
“I just gazed at him. Then he told me to look at him again. When I did so, he started beating me, knocking my head in the slab, kneeling on my stomach where a cesarean surgery had been done, twisting my hands,” she said.
Speaking bravely about all this, Wanjohi said it's only when neighbours came that Peter left her off the hook.
“I went to the hospital before reporting the matter to the police station where nothing was done,” she said.
Since then, she left the man and has not spoken up to date.
“I have moved on though sometimes I am traumatised but it’s an ordeal that I would not want to go back to. Women should just make up their minds and leave an abusive relationship.”
According to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2014, 14 per cent of women and 6 per cent of men aged 15-49 report having experienced sexual violence at least once in their lifetime.
Overall, 39 per cent of ever-married women and 9 per cent of men age 15-49 report having experienced spousal physical or sexual violence.
Among women and men who have ever experienced spousal violence (physical or sexual), 39 per cent and 24 per cent, respectively, reported experiencing physical injuries. 44 per cent of women and 27 per cent of men have sought assistance to stop the violence they have experienced.
A report by audit firm KPMG and telecommunications giant Vodafone indicated that Kenya loses about Sh5 billion every year as a consequence of absenteeism of working women suffering domestic abuse.
The survey released in 2019 showed that an estimated 505, 000 women in Kenya have been forced to take time off work because of domestic violence.
With the pandemic hitting the whole world, Kenya was not spared as the number of domestic violence rose exponentially making the president warn of such acts.
There are no official statistics on the number of cases of violence against women and girls in Kenya that have been taken recently, but calls to helplines have surged more than 10-fold since lockdown measures were imposed in 2020.
President Uhuru Kenyatta said he was concerned by “increasing tensions” within the home, noting that gender-based violence had increased, mental health issues had worsened, and instances of teenage pregnancy had escalated.
“We must always remember that the family is a projection of the state. If the family is under attack, the state is under attack. If the family is weak, the country is weak,” Kenyatta said in a televised address.
The SGBV Toll Free Hotline is; 1195 , Violence Against Women Hotline Toll-free 0-800-720-072