Kenya loses Sh41bn annually to GBV as report reveals hotspots

Victim of GBV speaks on the traumatising experience she went through. (File, Standard)

Kenya is paying a brutal price for failing to protect women and girls as new report reveals that more than Sh41 billion is lost every year to Gender-Based Violence (GBV).

The report by the Technical Working Group on GBV including Femicide shows that these losses result from disrupted livelihoods, increased healthcare, legal processes, lost productivity, and unrealised economic potential.   

According to the report, the economic value of women who never return to work after being assaulted, or even those who are killed is never quantified, neither does it measure the lifetime earnings lost when a girl drops out of school because of sexual violence.

In Kenya, GBV disproportionately affects women, resulting in severe socio-economic repercussions including lost work, decreased quality of life, disrupted education, increased health-related costs, and family instability

“Health facilities, police stations, and justice systems are overwhelmed by cases of GBV, often without the requisite training or resources to offer survivor-centered services,” reads the report.

Hospitals across the country treat thousands of survivors every year for injuries ranging from broken bones to internal bleeding, sexually transmitted infections and severe psychological trauma.

As a result, each visit consumes medical supplies, staff time and bed space and in public hospitals, the government absorbs the costs while in private facilities, families are sometimes forced to sell land, borrow money or sink into debt to keep loved ones alive.

In areas like Turkana, those who spoke to the team reported that the burden of GBV drains public resources through increased healthcare costs.

“GBV has contributed to an increase in maternal mortality, especially among teenage mothers who face higher health risks and limited access to quality maternal care here in Turkana putting a strain on scarce resources. We have to choose between treatment and other basic needs,” said informant.

The long-term costs such as counselling, medication for depression and anxiety, repeat hospital visits, and chronic health conditions linked to trauma often cycle through the health system for years.

“Every shilling spent responding to preventable violence is a shilling not spent on improving healthcare, education or infrastructure,” reads the report.

The report indicates that the economic losses are particularly serious in Kenya where women and girls play a central role in the informal economy and in unpaid care work.

“Households, especially female-headed, experience diminished economic resilience, increased medical burdens, and often, the complete breakdown of economic security when a mother or daughter is harmed or killed,” it reads further.

With the slow wheels of justice system and low conviction rates, spending remain high through police investigations, forensic examinations, prosecutions, court hearings, legal aid and imprisonment.

According to the report, older women are targeted for violence or murder in witchcraft accusations, particularly where illness, misfortune, or unexplained deaths are blamed on elderly women.

In rural and marginalised areas, where awareness and legal protections are often limited, the reports show that older women‘s vulnerability to GBV is high and intensified by harmful cultural practices.

Migori, Isiolo, Samburu, Bungoma, Murang’a, Homabay had the highest percentage of women age 15–49 who have ever experienced physical violence since the age of 15.

The report shows that in Murang’a County, 64 per cent of GBV cases in 2023 were domestic in nature and that further 31 per cent of reported female homicides were linked to intimate or familial relationships.

Economic stress and alcohol abuse are cited as contributing factors, compounded by limited access to shelters and psychosocial services

In Kwale County, GBV reports rose by 23 per cent between 2022 and 2024. Most of the cases stemmed from economic dependency, harmful cultural norms and lack of support services.

In Ukunda and Msambweni for example, stakeholders reported that the link between the region’s poverty levels and its positioning as a tourist hub, increases the risk of SGBV against women and girls.

They reported that foreigners groom vulnerable and poor girls by presenting financial assistance as benevolence making them susceptible to GBV.

Kisii County emerged as a major concern with reports indicating that 70 per cent of incest cases are withdrawn due to pressure from family members.

Kajiado and Narok counties continue to report high rates of child marriage, particularly among Maasai communities with the low school retention among girls perpetuating the harmful practice.

Kilifi, Kisii, Bomet and part of Nyanza Counties stood out for the prevalence of livestock-based compensation practices where sexual abuse and GBV cases are settled by pressuring survivors to accept cows or goats as a restitution.

To curb this practice, the taskforce recommended criminalisation of out-of-court settlements in GBV cases to explicitly prohibit the informal or customary resolution of criminal GBV including femicide.

In Migori, “soil for sex” was reported as a troubling trend where financially desperate girls in gold mining areas are coerced into exchanging sex for access to gold-rich soil, while in Kwale, the “fish for sex” phenomenon has taken on new norms.

In counties with high prevalence of GBV, the report shows that FGM, child, early and forced marriage, widow cleansing and wife inheritance, fertility testing are common forms of GBV.

Widow cleansing and wife inheritance entails widows being forced to undergo sexual rituals or be inherited by a male relative of their deceased husband.

“These practices strip women of dignity, agency, and the right to grieve and rebuild their lives on their own terms,” reads the report.

In some pastoralist communities, beading is another form of harmful cultural practice where young girls are symbolically booked for sexual relations by older men through beaded ornamentation.

This cultural practice leads to early pregnancies, child marriages and dropping out of school.

Fertility testing is where a newly married women may be subjected to invasive tests to prove fertility, usually through without consent hence enforcing the belief that a woman’s value lies solely in childbearing and often blame women for infertility.

According to the Technical Working Group, many stakeholders understand and often excuse certain forms of GBV as cultural practices.

“Acts such as FGM, widow cleansing, beading, and wife inheritance are carried out under the guise of tradition and communal duty, masking their true nature as violations of the rights and bodily autonomy of women and girls,” reads the report.

The report found out that normalising GBV as cultural practices and including femicide as a legitimate expression of patriarchal or cultural authority makes victims shy away from reporting and creates an enabling environment for GBV to thrive.

Elections in Kenya have historically been flashpoints for GBV, particularly sexual violence used as intimidation or revenge with perpetrators often linked to political or security forces.

Areas facing instability such as border areas and refugee settlements are also among the areas with intensified GBV cases.

Findings show that women and girls in such areas are disproportionately exposed to sexual violence, at the hands of armed groups or security personnel, whereas access to justice and healthcare remains severely limited.

In border counties such as Busia, Migori, and Kwale were also listed as hotspots for GBV due to human trafficking and smuggling. The report revealed that women and girls are subjected to GBV under the guise of employment or migration opportunities.

Poverty and unemployment are key drivers of GBV. In areas like Bungoma, stakeholders reported that when women leave their homes going to work as house helps in Saudi Arabia and Middle East countries or Nairobi, they leave their children with their fathers, who sometimes turn to female children for sexual satisfaction.

“Relatives also take advantage of the vacuum, which leads to cases of rape and defilement. Such environments increase the risk of abuse sometimes by care,” reads the report.

Widespread poverty and economic dependence on male partners often force women to remain in violent relationships due to a lack of financial alternatives.

In some cases, femicide were linked to tensions arising when women seek financial independence, challenging entrenched households power dynamics.

“Additionally, women and girls are compelled to engage in transactional relationships where men treat them as their subjects and most times leading to femicide,” the team reported.