• The Rapid Study on Technology Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TF GBV) found that 21.9 percent of respondents had either experienced or witnessed online bullying.
• The study was conducted in Nairobi between September 29 and October 12, 2023, at the University of Nairobi, Zetech University and Kabete National Polytechnic.
Image: COURTESY
Online defamation is the leading form of technology-facilitated gender-based violence in Kenya’s tertiary institutions, a survey has revealed.
The Rapid Study on Technology Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TF GBV) found that 21.9 percent of respondents had either experienced or witnessed online bullying in their institution.
The report said cyberbullying was cited as the second most common form of TF GBV at 19.1 per cent, non-consensual pornography (17.8 per cent); cyberstalking (14.6 percent); online personification (13.3 percent); online sexual exploitation (8.4 percent); sextortion (3.3 percent) and doxing (1.6 percent).
“Yes, my office is quite aware, and we have had various discussions with various stakeholders on how social media is contributing to cyber harassment and cyberbullying,” a dean of students said during the survey.
The study was conducted in Nairobi between September 29 and October 12, 2023, at the University of Nairobi, Zetech University and Kabete National Polytechnic.
A total of 723 respondents (5 married, 717 single) were interviewed from the general survey, six focus group discussions and 24 key informant interviews.
A total of 424 females and 299 male respondents aged between 20 and 25 were interviewed with each institution accounting for 33.3 percent of the total sample (241 respondents).
The students were randomly selected from all the faculties to give everyone an equal chance of participation, reduce bias and ensure equal representation of the population.
The Collaborative Center for Gender and Development (CCGD) conducted the rapid study in partnership with the University of Nairobi Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) Hub with support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
By gender, the study found that online defamation was the most common form of TF GBV against females at 30.4 percent followed by non-consensual pornography at 24.4 percent.
“Yes, people are bullied online, called names even. And nowadays, people are called names such as ‘kienyeji’ based on how they dress and talk,” a respondent said during the focus group discussion by male respondents.
“I know of stalking and trolling of girls. You find men engage in these activities of discussing girls’ physiques and later using the information to insult her,” another added.
Other forms of TF GBV commonly experienced by females in tertiary institutions in order of prevalence, the report revealed, are cyberbullying (18.1 percent); cyberstalking (17.5 percent); personification 3.3 (percent); sextortion (1.3 percent); and sexual exploitation (5 percent).
In males, online defamation also leads at 43 percent, followed by cyberbullying at 39.4 percent; personification (13.1 percent); non-consensual pornography (3.6 percent) and cyberstalking (0.9 percent).
Authorities said they received some of the reports.
“So far, it would be posting of explicit images and video, online text harassment where someone insults you on text messages,” an officer commander in charge of gender said.
The study found that TF GBV was highest on X (formerly Twitter) at 18.4 percent; WhatsApp (17 percent); Facebook (16.8 percent); Telegram (14.2 percent) and Instagram/ Threads (14.07 percent).
Others are Tiktok (13.7 percent); YouTube (3.1 percent); Snapchat (2.6 percent) and Tinder 0.2 percent.
According to both the male and female respondents’ perspectives, most of the TF GBV occurs on X because “you can create a false account and comment on anything” and because “everything starts there before going viral anywhere”.