Unsafe in their own city: The daily struggles of Nairobi’s young women

Global statistics show that sexual violence against women and girls is pervasive. Data from the UN Women indicate that worldwide, 6 per cent of women report being subjected to sexual violence from someone other than their husband or partner.

The data also show that 15 million girls aged 15–19 have experienced forced sexual intercourse, usually from a current or former husband, partner, or boyfriend. The seriousness of this problems led to the establishment of the Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI) in 2003 as part of the World Health Organisation. SVRI eventually became an independent non-governmental organisation in 2006.

SVRI promotes research in sexual violence for empirical data to ensure the subject is recognised as a priority public health issue. It proceeds from the premise that prevention efforts and service provision be informed by sound evidence.

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Towards this, SVRI holds biennial conferences for “exchanging knowledge and experience with others on violence against women and children and other forms of violence driven by gender inequality in low- and middle-income countries”. This enables knowledge management around the subject. This year’s forum is to be held in Cape Town, South Africa, on October 21–24.

Importantly, the 2024 forum will feature a presentation on a study conducted in Kenya. Titled “Actionable gaps: Help-seeking behaviour among young women experiencing intimate partner violence and non-partner sexual violence in Nairobi, Kenya”, the study was conducted jointly by researchers from the John Hopkins University, Kenyatta University and the International Centre for Reproductive Health (Kenya) under the project Agile 2.0 Gender/GBV Evidence to Action.

It focused on forms of sexual harassment among young people aged 15–29, with data gathered from Westlands, Dagoretti, Embakasi, Kasarani, Lang’ata, Roysambu, Makadara, Kamukunji, Starehe and Mathare in June to August 2023. The goal was to assess prevalence of sexual harassment and concerns of safety among young women aged 15–29 living in Nairobi. A total of 831 survey respondents and 15 purposively sampled key informants were interviewed.

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More specifically, the study investigated whether respondents had, in the past 12 months, experienced any form of sexual harassment. The overall prevalence of sexual harassment was 70.3 per cent, with the following behaviours being the most common: being stared or leered at (57.9 per cent); unwanted sexual comments, innuendos, jokes or gestures (54.6 per cent); and unwanted sexual attention (42 per cent).

A 17-year-old respondent exemplified that she had encountered sexually laced verbal insults from men while walking within the community. Generally, the study noted pervasive exposure of women to sexual harassment and a high level of normalisation of the vice.

Respondents were also asked to indicate how safe they felt in public spaces, with specific regard to concerns or fears about being touched or harassed. The results showed that over 40 per cent of the women had recently been afraid to go outside because of such fears.

There is thus a palpable relationship between sexual harassment against women and their diminished sense of safety within public spaces. The implication is that women must be constantly wary of their surroundings and need to take precautionary measures in anticipation of sexual harassment.

The problem of sexual violence against women is covered in the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS) 2022, which reports that “13 per cent of women reported that they had experienced sexual violence at some point in their lives, and 7 per cent …in the last 12 months” before the survey.

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The report notes that the percentage increased with age, at 7 per cent among those aged 15–19 to 18 per cent among those aged 40–49. Unlike the joint study whose results are to be presented at SVRI, the KDHS does not cover women’s sense of safety in public spaces.

The issue of women’s safety from sexual harassment in cities is raised in the 2020 UN Women publication titled Safe cities and safe public spaces for women and girls global flagship initiative: Second international compendium of practices, which showcases efforts to deal with the problem.

The initiatives include: identification and reliance on locally relevant and owned solutions; strengthening of laws and policies against the vice; investing in the safety and economic viability of public spaces; and fostering of transformative social norms that promote women’s and girls’ rights to use of public spaces free from sexual harassment and other forms of sexual violence.

The Kenyan study actually resonates with findings from other researches cited in the UN Women publication that young women are particularly vulnerable to aggravated levels of sexual violence. I

n other words, this is a global problem that requires sustained and meaningful attention by policymakers and urban planners to make cities safe for women. This must include envisioning such a city and building gender sensitivity into the design of urbanities and infrastructure.

The writer is a lecturer in Gender and Development Studies at South Eastern Kenya University ([email protected]).