UNICEF warns of abuses against children in Kenya
Children and women have borne the worst of the violence in Kenya and have the most to gain from peace, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said today, drawing attention to rising sexual violence and seeking resources to combat it.
With the two leaders in the disputed election, President Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga, set to meet through the mediation of former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and other eminent African leaders, the agency said the political turmoil has increased incidents of sexual abuse against children, teens and women.
Preliminary reports collected by an inter-agency group, led by the UN Population Fund ( UNFPA) with support from UNICEF and the UN Development Fund for Women ( UNIFEM), indicate “the tragedy of girls and women in the informal camps who trade sex for biscuits, protection, transportation, or are raped while trying to get to a latrine during the night.”
The Gender Violence Recovery Center in Mombasa reported that cases of sexual violence had doubled since the disputed elections and there have been an increase in sexual assaults by strangers and gang rapes; most of them girls under the age of 18, but also including some boys, UNICEF said in a news release.
On the overall violence, UNICEF said brutal attacks have continued in several areas in the Rift Valley. Inter-ethnic violence also erupted in some places that had so far stayed out of the conflict, including Nakuru, which is now playing host to the largest population of displaced families in the country
