Lizala Alfonze – KANERE Staff Writer November 2020
Over the past seven months, cases of sexual and gender-based violence have increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With the measures put in place to curb the spread of the virus, the operation of schools, sports events, businesses and most social activities has been affected. This situation forces interaction that used to be limited as many people are forced to stay at home almost every day.
Sexual and gender-based violence is an oppressive force that damages the dignity and well-being of women and girls, resulting in physical injuries, psychological trauma, unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections.
The Coronavirus pandemic has placed women and girls at even higher risk of gender-based violence.
The policies put in place such as lockdowns, movement restrictions and reduced community interactions lead to confinement of abused women in their homes, trapping them with their abusers. Not only that, but COVID-19 is affecting their social-economic conditions and is forcing some women into survival sex or early marriages to provide for their families.
This press release by the UNHCR provides further information on heightened risks of GBV.
In their households, women take on increased burdens as caregivers responsible for protecting and providing for their families. Many households are now depending on the women to help maintain sufficient hygiene, shielding them from the virus. The effect of these unbalanced and growing responsibilities on women’s physical and mental health is worrisome.
These are some of the statements from interviews of sources who chose to remain unnamed.
“It feels like you are in a box and everyone and everything around you is constant and you can’t leave and everyday is a repeat of what happened yesterday and the day before that,” explained Karen, a woman in one of the residences at Kakuma 1 Zone 1 Block 12.” This brings idleness, and idleness is the devil’s workshop, that is why all this unfair violence against us is happening.”
“The beatings were there from the beginning but not this frequent, now that he is at home all the time, I fear him more than I fear the virus,” an unnamed source affirmed.
“I used to run a small kiosk to help provide for my family but with the way things are going with Corona, I am unable to cater to some of those needs and my husband is not happy as his work has stopped as well. Things are not going well at home and every time he snaps and blames me for even the smallest thing, how am I to blame?”
Although times are changing and equality between both men and women is being strongly campaigned and fought for, the fight is still far from over and this pandemic is only shedding light on this.