Isiolo County Grapples with Grim Statistics of Gender Based Violence

By Elsie Karendi

Nairobi, Kenya: Gender Based Violence (GBV) cases against women have been on the rise with rampant cases reported both locally and globally. According to statistics by UN Women shows 30% of women totaling to 736 million have been subjected to abuse in their lives and 13% of the cases are committed by their intimate partners with 66,000 resulting to violent deaths reported globally .

In Kenya, 40% of women have undergone GBV with Counties like Busia, Garissa, Kakamega and Isiolo Counties reporting some of the highest prevalence cases.

Grace Lolim the founder of an organization that helps victims of GBV in Isiolo County, says that GBV takes many forms such as intimate partner Violence, sexual violence, child marriage and FGM, Victims suffer devastating consequences with some even leading to death.

Some of the GBV survivors allege that they have not been able to get justice due to corruption by the police, lack of proper investigations and perpetrators buying their way to freedom among others.

There’s paramount need to link survivors to information resource centers, vocational trainings mentorship programs and allocation of resources for self empowerment and life progression.