Gender Based Violence

The turmoil and ethnic violence following the 2007 elections in Kenya included wide based GBV (“Gender Based Violence”).  During the height of the conflict and in the aftermath, hundreds of women were raped and defiled; many of those involved gang rapes.  This was especially prevalent in the camps for internally displaced persons (“IDPs”) – there were 500,000 IDPs by the time the worst was over.

This information recently was published by the United States as part of its request for applications for funding relating to its new Women’s Peace Campaign in Kenya:

“The 2003 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS), a representative survey of 9,000 Kenya households, found that

·         49% of Kenyan women had experienced violence since age 15 with Nairobi (51%), Nyanza (60%), and Western (73%) provinces having the highest rates. 

·         One in four women reported that they had experienced violence in the previous 12 months.

·          83% of women reported that they had experienced physical violence in their childhood.

·         46% reported that they had been sexually abused in childhood.

·         25% of 12-24 year olds reported that the first time they had sex it was forced. 

·         Over 60% of these women and children stated that they did not report the violence to anyone.

”The 2008 version of the KDHS was slightly less comprehensive, but contained similar findings: 39 percent of women (married, divorced, or separated) reported that they had been physically or sexually assaulted by their husbands.

“The Kenya Gender Data Sheet of 2005 reported that more than 2 out of 3 women surveyed agreed that a husband is justified in beating his wife for at least one reason.”

GBV is a significant concern in many African countries.  In recent discussions with NGO workers from Somalia, Somaliland (officially still a region of Somalia) and Ethiopia, the description of GBV in Somalia is particularly disheartening. 

Right now there is no Somalia infra-structure to deal with GBV issues.  There are very large camps and areas that have huge populations of IDPs.  There are no procedures, funds or personnel to address the most basic concerns of prevention and protection.  There literally is nowhere for a woman to go if she is not protected by those around her.

In Kenya, there currently are extensive resources and efforts focused on GBV and other gender related concerns, such as female circumcision, from grass roots to the highest levels of government by a wide variety of NGOs, CBOs (charity based organizations), religious groups and governments.  Although I’m convinced that more coordination and cooperation among all of these efforts would provide exponentially greater results, change is clearly more than just in the air.