'Women in Nakuru slums view being slapped by husbands as male dominance,' report says

Gender Based Violence (GBV) is one of the many vices that leaves its victims with deep scars. 

A report dubbed ‘Root causes of Gender Based Violence in Informal Settlements in Nakuru, Kenya,’ found that violence such as a slap was described to be accepted and explained with references to expectations of masculinity and exertion of violence.

Elizabeth Onyango, one of the researchers says the report found that these cases are attributed to gendered power imbalance, but worsened due to the loss of jobs and financial instability during the COVID 19 pandemic.

The study which was conducted in the three informal settlements of Kaptembwo (Nakuru Town West), Bondeni (Nakuru Town East) and Karagita (Naivasha) was carried out by Dignity- Danish Institute Against Torture and Mid-Rift Hurinet.

“The respondents also indicated that emotional violence is normalized and is mostly perpetrated by women but not considered serious,” she says.

According to the report, gender stereotypes and violence, interlinked with intimate partner violence was seen by the respondents as a way to assert masculinity.

“Violence was described as contributing to an overall social expectation in the community, that accepts the male gender as dominant,” the report read in part.

Another aspect was gendered stigmatization which was found to affect opportunities for reporting GBV, where women and girls are repeatedly blamed if they experience sexual violence.

“Often ‘inappropriate dressing’ or ‘staying out late’ are given as the causes for why they experienced the violence,” the report notes.

Shiko Kihika of Tribeless Youth says one of the ways that will help curb GBV would be to implement the policare policy to its fullest.

“Policare policy looks at addressing ways in which we can address GBV with the main objective being to provide a framework to support and strengthen the capacity of different multi sectoral agencies,” she notes.

Shiko says informing the community of how GBV affects them will go a long way.

“You often find that whenever someone is going through a lot mentally, the first person they tend to attack is the person closest to them either their husband, wife or children. The Nyumba Kumi policing should also step in and act as pillars that prevent GBV and not be enablers,” she adds.

Shiko continues to say, “The only other way is to eradicate the issue of gender stereotypes and social norms such as the one that has made it okay and normal for husbands to slap their wives, with the wives perceiving it as a show of masculinity from their spouses.”