Violence against women widespread - new report

Violence against women in Kenya remains widespread despite efforts to increase public awareness by the authorities and civil society, Amnesty International (AI) said in its 2005 global annual report on human rights. Perpetrators of violence against women included both state officials and private individuals, according to the report, which was launched by AI's Kenyan chapter in the nation's capital, Nairobi, on Tuesday. The report said women and girls were subjected to domestic violence, sexual assault, rape, incest, forced marriages and female genital mutilation. Gang rape, sexual assualt during robbery and carjacking were also frequently reported, it added. It said between January and August 2004, the police had recorded 1,895 rapes, but noted that many more had not been reported to the police. In 2003, there were 2,308 rapes reported to law enforcement agencies. AI noted that a Kenyan demographic health survey released in August had indicated that more than half the women had experienced violence since they were 15. The survey showed that husbands inflicted 60 percent of the beatings, according to the survey. Women’s rights groups in Kenya have attributed the low rate of convictions in sexual offence cases to a lack of trained police officers to carry out investigations, difficulties in the preservation of forensic evidence in rape cases and a shortage of lawyers with specialised training to prosecute such cases, according to AI. It said government institutions to support survivors of violence were inadequate and services such as shelters and counselling were lacking, adding that there was no access to post-exposure prophylaxis against sexually transmitted diseases in rape cases. However, AI noted, Kenyan authorities had formed a special unit in the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to handle sexual offences and set up a women-only police station in Nairobi to deal exclusively with rape, domestic violence and child abuse cases. Last October, the Kenya Women Parliamentarian's Association sponsored a motion to allow the government to chemically castrate rapists. The motion is yet to be debated by parliament. The global report, issued on 25 May, also noted that there were repeated public complaints by detainess of torture and ill-treatment at the hands of police officers. Although the law was amended in 2003 to prohibit the use of confessions made under duress as evidence in criminal proceedings, practices amounting to torture continued to be used as a means of investigation and to extract confessions, the report said, adding that authorities had failed to promptly investigate complaints of torture. AI said the Kenyan police used firearms in circumstances far wider than those allowed by international human rights standards, both during anti-crime operations and to disperse demonstrations. There were several reports of excessive use of force and killings by the police in disputed circumstances, it added. Prison conditions in Kenya remained harsh despite some reforms, AI said, adding that chronic overcrowding continued to cause serious problems. The report said more than 50,000 prisoners were held in the country’s 92 prisons, which were built to house a maximum of 19,000 inmates. Lack of basic health, nutrition and sanitation in the prisons amounted to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, it added. Few, poorly trained prison wardens used excessive force to control inmates, while several people died in custody, allegedly as a result of ill-treatment. Kenyan courts continued to impose death sentences, but the last executions were carried out in 1986. Statistics from Kamiti Maximum Security Prison outside Nairobi indicated that by June 2004, there were 946 prisoners on death row, 66 of whom had completed their appeal processes and were awaiting presidential pardon, while 880 had appealed against their sentences.