Nairobi and Kiambu counties have the highest occurrences of physical violence against women, some of the victims being as young as 15 years old.
The 2022 Kenya Demographic Health Survey shows that 16,926 women experienced physical violence in the country in the year under review with Nairobi accounting for 2,088 of the cases.
The report said that 15.8 per cent of the total number of victims reported experiencing the violence often or sometimes.
The percentage who held this view in Nairobi stood at 13.5 while in Kiambu county which had the second highest number of victims at 1,091 had 17.9 per cent of them report that they were often abused or sometimes.
According to the survey, Lamu county had the lowest number of physical violence against women and girls with just 51 per cent where 33.9 per cent of the victims reported being abused since the age of 15.
“For women who were married or living together with a partner before age 15 and reported violence only by their husband and for never-married women who had an intimate partner before age 15 and reported violence only by their intimate partner, the violence could have occurred before age 15,” the report said.
It said the most commonly reported perpetrator of physical violence is a husband or intimate partner (54%), followed by a former husband or intimate partner (34%).
According to the report which had Kamamega as the third county with the highest cases of physical violence against women at 707 cases, men were also subjected to abuse by their wives or intimate partners.
It said the most common perpetrators of physical violence against men were teachers at 28 per cent.
It said 20 per cent of men were also assaulted by their wives or intimate partners while 19 per cent were by their former wives or intimate partners.
“Twenty-three per cent of men who have ever been married or had an intimate partner experienced physical violence at the hands of other persons,” the report concluded.
