Women in Bungoma most likely to experience violence - KNBS survey
The percentage of women who have experienced physical violence since age 15 is highest in Bungoma and lowest in Mandera.
Women from Bungoma County are more likely to experience physical violence than their counterparts from other parts of the country, data now shows.
According to a fresh survey by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), the percentage of women who have experienced physical violence since age 15 is highest in Bungoma (62 percent) and lowest in Mandera (9 percent).
"34 percent of women in Kenya have experienced physical violence since age 15, including 16 percent who experienced physical violence often or sometimes in the 12 months before the survey. Slightly lower proportions of men experienced physical violence (27 percent) since age 15, including 10 percent who experienced such violence in the 12 months before the survey," KNBS said in a report.
Other counties with high prevalence of violence include Murang'a (53.7 percent), Homa Bay (53.5 percent), Migori (51.1 percent), Samburu (48.6 percent) and Isiolo (45.6 percent).
According to the survey, marital status is linked to violence among women with those who have ever been married (41 percent) much more likely to have experienced violence since age 15 compared to those who have never been married (20 percent).
Another differentiating factor was literacy, as data showed that women with no education were most likely to experience violence (36 percent) compared to those with more than secondary education (23 percent).
Perpetrators
The trend in perpetrators varied across genders with most women reporting that they experienced violence from either their husband or intimate partner.
Despite the new Constitution under the Basic Education Act (2013) stipulating that corporal punishment is banned, most men reported that teachers were the top perpetrators of violence against them, followed by current wives/intimate partners and former intimate partners coming in third.
"The most commonly reported perpetrator of physical violence among women was their current husband or intimate partner (54%), followed by a former husband/intimate partner (34%)...The most common perpetrators of physical violence among men were teachers (28%), followed by current wives/intimate partners (20%) and former wives/intimate partners (19%)," the KNBS survey shows.
Women in rural areas were more likely to face a form of violence compared to their counterparts in urban areas.
When it comes to sexual violence, the latest data shows that 13 percent of women reported experiencing a form of sexual violence with Bungoma Country having the highest prevalence in the country at 30 percent.
About 7 per cent of Kenyan men reported experiencing a form of sexual violence.
