Lockdown could slow GBV reporting

Counties with high probability of  sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) occurrence have received minimal, to none of such incidents, a week after the government imposed a raft of measures including a 7pm to 5am curfew following Covid-19 outbreak.

The worry, however, is that people would be suffering in silence due to fear of reprisal and lack of refuge as families and community members are now suspicious of each other as the number of Covid-19 patients keep rising.

Closure of bars

"What I know is that these cases are there but you can't give actual numbers because no one has reported," Mr Clement Gisore, Nakuru County Director for Gender under National Government said by phone on Monday.

He said: "They would be fearing to report because 'where will they go with this Coronavirus?"

He also observed that SGBV crime rate would be minimal since some factors contributing to the vice have been neutralised by government orders. These include closure of bars and 7pm to 5am curfew.

"Alcohol consumption contributes to violence at homes...the cases would be minimal now that bars are closed," he said.

"Sometimes violence happens because a man is trying to prove his economic superiority but he is now humbled by circumstances," he added.

Statistics from the 2014 National Crime Research Centre (NCRC) report on GBV puts Nakuru in the bracket of counties with high rates of GBV. Its prevalence rate being 53.8 per cent.

In Kakamega County, two cases have been reported so far.

In one, a husband assaulted his wife while another involved a policeman and a woman according to Ms Peninah Mukabane, gender advisor in the county government.

In the 2018 NCRC report, the county is identified as a high risk area for GBV with a prevalence rate of 6.7 per cent against a national average of 8.3 per cent.

She said the presence of children following closure of schools and higher learning institutions as well as police in the neighbourhoods during curfew hours, would be a deterrent to perpetrators.

Intimate partner

"These circumstances do not allow for an occurrence of GBV...they would also be happening but people are afraid of reporting," she said.

In Meru County, currently with highest intimate partner violence at 66.7 per cent prevalence rate, no case has been reported this far.

"But we are alert and monitoring the situation on the ground," said Ms Jamila Gacheri, chairperson of Meru Women Against SGBV, one of the 50 grassroots organisations monitoring, documenting and reporting  the vice in Meru, in collaboration with the county government.

“Even though, in this Covid-19 curfew, the police are out to ensure adherence to the orders, their ears and hands remain open to responding to cries of SGBV victims, assured Mr Charles Owino, Kenya Police Service Spokesperson.

“Police have no jurisdiction when it comes to help. (In) any emergency, we are the first line of call," he told Gender desk by phone on Monday.