Sexual violence continues to affect millions of people worldwide and represents a serious global public health problem.
Gender-based violence remains one of the most widespread and socially tolerated human rights violations in the country.
Indicators of GBV show a surge in cases of physical and sexual violence, including intimate partner violence against women and girls, sexual abuse, beatings, increased family break-ups, forced child marriages, female genital mutilations, femicides and homicides.
Though there’s a lack of up-to-date national data on the prevalence of domestic violence in Kenya; it is heart-breaking and horrific to view, read and listen to cases being reported or shared daily in print, electronic and social media platforms.
The 2016 National Gender and Equality Commission research findings in their study titled, Gender-Based Violence in Kenya, showed the economic burden on survivors, need to be implemented to the latter.
The report recommended that GBV should be declared a national disaster, policy guidelines should be strengthened, awareness should be created and include GBV management in training for health staff, social workers, the judiciary, security agencies, and policymakers in general.
State and non-state stakeholders should work collaboratively to streamline the GBV management system at all levels through the provision of resources, appropriate capacity building of actors to effect integrated teamwork across different sectors.
Police should be regularly equipped with skills and better facilities (such as forensic laboratories) to pursue justice, target perpetrators of violence in SGBV prevention and mitigation programmes and develop a national integrated data management system that accesses data from all SGBV stakeholders and actors
Progressive societal values and norms appear to be completely forgotten with family set-ups and upright parenting drifting negatively.
The situation has been worse during the Covid-19 pandemic window due to the restrictions that were put in place to curb the spread of the virus, increased levels of stress, depression among other factors occasioned by precarious economic conditions and massive job redundancies.
Many abusers are close family members, including husbands.
The police remain on spot to improve their handling of sexual assault cases to revive the public trust in the security and justice systems that is nose-diving.
The police continue to face criticism from gender activists for its alleged failure to act on reported sexual violence cases though now and again they have sighted to have put in place the best mechanisms to handle sexual violence.
Impunity, fear of the unknown, stigmatisation, isolation, lack of accountability and services for survivors remain among key agents of GBV perpetration.
Risk factors, rooted in social injustices and inequities transcend geographical boundaries and individual differences.
“World Health Organization estimates almost one-third of women experience some form of physical and or sexual violence from an intimate partner in their lifetime.
According to WHO, as many as over 38 per cent of all murders of women are committed by intimate partners.
The 2014 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey indicated that overall, about 41 per cent of women reported having experienced physical or sexual violence from their husbands or partners in their lifetime.
About two-fifths of those women reported physical injuries from the violence.
The survey further showed, due to societal and cultural norms, a considerable proportion (42 per cent) of women and men in Kenya still believed that wife-beating was acceptable under some conditions.
Such retrogressive social and cultural norms should be demystified through revised education syllabuses and community mobilisation programmes to change unequal gender norms.
The government should redouble its efforts in addressing gender-based violence cases by taking the lead at utilising existing evidence to understand the root causes of the persistence of SGBV in Kenya, fill gaps in such evidence and use it to strengthen coordination, prevention and response mechanisms.
Founder- Integrated Development Network
Edited by Kiilu Damaris
