Most gender-based violence survivors in Nairobi fail to get justice because they don't report the attacks to police.
The latest study by the International Centre for Reproductive Health shows only three in every 10 women sought help for GBV, with only one in every six reporting to the police.
The survey by Performance Monitoring for Action was conducted between November and December last year among 801 respondents from 949 households in Nairobi.
The report released on Friday indicated six in 10 survivors reported to their own families, three in 10 reported to in-laws.
Another 23 per cent seek help from their friends and neighbours, 19 per cent opt go to religious leaders while a small fraction report to their boyfriends or partners.
Of those reporting, 14.5 per cent was reported the violence was committed by a non-partner household member, while 6.3 per cent was by an intimate partners.
“As much as our women are going through violence, only a small fraction are reporting or seeking help and those who seeking help mostly go to families or in-laws," Michael Waithaka said.
Waithaka is a senior data analysis at PMA.
“Trying to break down the types of violence we see the most dominant was emotional violence followed by sexual and physical violence,” he added.
According to the survey, only about 15 per cent of the women selected reported intimate partner violence while about six per cent reported violence by a non-partner household member.
Twelve per cent of those who reported intimate partner violence had been threatened with murdered by their intimate partners.
The report shows emotional violence was rated at 79.4 per cent; sexual violence 33.7 per cent; physical violence 31.8 per cent. murder threats 14 per cent of respondents.
Some respondents reported experiencing more than one type of violence.
Of women who reported violence from intimate partners, 82 per cent reported emotional violence, 33.6 per cent pressure to have sex without force, 12 per cent received murder threats while six per cent were physically forced to have sex.
Among those who reported violence by non-partner household members, 72.5 per cent reported emotional violence, 24 per cent physical violence, 26 per cent pressure to have sex without violence, 15 per cent were forced to have sex while 16 per cent received murder threats.
“There is need to come up with programs that are non-stigmatising, non-judgmental, which helps us to reduce. We can first train our community health workers to help deal with these cases,"Waithaka.
The report calls for advocacy programmes to educate boy women and men to reduce violence.
(Edited by V. Graham)
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