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January 24,2022

Anna Murray 

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and its Kenyan member organization, the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC), released a report on January 18 in Nairobi, Kenya's capital and largest city, that examines patterns of sexual and gender-based violence against women during election seasons in Kenya and calls on the government to take immediate preventive action ahead of the upcoming general elections in 2022.

With key participants including the Independent Elections Boundaries Commission (IEBC), the Gender and Equality Commission (NGEC), the National Council on the Administration of Justice (NCAJ), the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), and a survivor of the 2007/20 election violence, FIDH and KHRC released a joint report titled "Sexual and gender-based violence as a major component of election-related violence in Kenya: risks and implications." They gathered to discuss sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in Kenyan elections and how to avoid it in future elections.

This report is based on fact-finding missions and in-depth SGBV analysis, including violence committed during the 2017 general elections in three opposition strongholds, Migori, Vihiga, and Kisumu counties. In their new report on election-related SGBV in Kenya, the FIDH and KHRC have highlighted the gender dimension of violence perpetrated against women in order to prevent a repeat of such violence in 2022.

Gender-based violence (GBV) assistance has also been incorporated into the World Bank's Emergency COVID-19 initiatives in collaboration with the Kenyan government. When compared to the same period in 2019, the number of reported GBV cases in Kenya increased by 300 percent between March and April 2020.

Meanwhile, on January 17, President Uhuru Kenyatta reaffirmed his government's commitment to ending gender-based violence and urged Kenyans to support the efforts of various state agencies. In a pre-recorded video, President Kenyatta stated during the opening session of the Agnes Tirop Gender Conference at a Kwale Hotel that his administration had allocated adequate resources to GBV response measures.