Creaw Portal

Nairobi Star Friday 28^th November 2008

BY IRENE WAIRIMU

CIVIL society is raising the alarm over the increased rate of sexual violence crimes across the country. Statistics show that more than 1,300 women were reported to have been raped in the first quarter of 2008, a sharp increase from the1, 149 women reported rape in the whole of 2007. In 2006, 1,295 cases of rape were documented.

A gender-based violence advisor with CARE International, Millicent Obaso, said many cases of rape went unreported during the first four months due to the post-election violence. She said a study conducted by CARE International in Kibera, Mathare and Kisumu showed 30 per cent of the women who were sexually assaulted contracted HIV. The study further revealed that up to two thirds of rape victims had been abandoned by their husbands because of the stigma and shame associated with rape.

She was speaking in Nakuru during the launch of 16 days of national activism against gender-based violence.