Gender-Based Violence is Killing Women in Kenya—It’s Time for Action

On September 5, 2024, Rebecca Cheptegei, a 33-year-old Ugandan Olympian runner, was doused in petrol and set on fire by her boyfriend outside her home in Trans Nzoia County, Kenya. The next day, Cheptegei succumbed to her injuries, having sustained burns over 75% of her body. Her remains were returned to Uganda, where her family laid her to rest in her father’s homestead. 

Cheptegei’s death echoes the grim reality of gender-based violence (GBV) in Kenya, where violence against women is widespread and deeply entrenched. Cheptegi joins the ranks of female athletes and women who fall victim to GBV in Kenya each year. Her murder has sparked outrage and deeper discussions on the pervasive violence against women in Kenya.

According to the World Health Organization, GBV is any harmful act that is perpetrated against a person’s will based on their gender. This includes sexual, physical, and domestic violence, female genital mutilation (FGM), stalking, child marriage, honor killings, and femicide, which predominantly affect women and girls. In Kenya, GBV is a deeply rooted issue that remains largely overlooked.

In recent years, Kenya has seen an alarming surge in GBV cases, raising serious concerns about the safety of women in the country. In 2021, former President Uhuru Kenyatta declared gender-based violence a national crisis following a World Health Organization report that revealed Kenya has one of the highest rates of femicide in Africa, with an estimated 47 women killed each week. A 2022 survey by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics found that 40% of Kenyan women had experienced some form of physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. Of these, 34% had been subjected to physical violence since the age of fifteen, and 13% had experienced sexual violence. Alarmingly, 75% of female homicide victims were killed by intimate partners or family members, most often husbands or boyfriends, with 80% of these killings occurring in the home over the past eight years, according to Africa Data Hub. In only about 15% of cases, the woman was killed by a stranger. 

These statistics reflect a profound and urgent issue. Gender-based violence in Kenya is not just a crime against women—it is an assault on Kenyan society itself. 

Despite the gravity of this issue, most GBV cases in Kenya go unreported or unnoticed due to social and cultural factors, as well as widespread corruption and inefficiencies within the justice system. Even when perpetrators are identified, few are prosecuted, and justice remains elusive for countless victims. While a few high-profile cases, such as the 2018 murder of Sharon Otieno and the 2021 stabbing of Olympian runner Agnes Tirop, have garnered media attention and sparked activism, many other killings likely go unnoticed. 

Addressing gender-based violence in Kenya requires culturally specific interventions that consider the interconnectedness of women’s issues, societal norms, and harmful traditions. The fight against GBV must involve dismantling the harmful views on gender roles that confine women to submissive and scrutinizing customs and confronting traditions that condone violence against women in order to uphold patriarchal systems. The fight must also focus on power dynamics between men and women in marriages, families, and society at large, which are often exacerbated by economic and social factors like poverty, religion, lack of education, and limited access to healthcare and employment opportunities. These inequalities embolden some men to feel entitled to commit acts of violence. 

A normalized system of gender-based violence is killing women in Kenya, yet societal and legal frameworks remain ineffective at addressing the root causes. To truly protect women, law enforcement must take these cases seriously, hold perpetrators accountable, and strengthen data collection efforts to better understand and combat violence against women.

Only by studying and addressing GBV as a separate, complex issue can we hope to protect women from further violence and break the cycle.