‘Most adults abused in childhood’

By RAWLINGS OTIENO

Two of three girls have been beaten, threatened with weapons or experienced some form of violence.

This is according to a new study that has shown that more females have borne the brunt of sexual violence.

Violence against children and their exploitation are a global, social, economic, human rights and public health issue with significant negative impacts.

Gender, Children and Social Development Minister Naomi Shaban said that the perpetrators of violence against the children were most often known to the children.

“Sexual violence against small girls is in most cases committed by relatives or people known to the children,” said Shaban. She was speaking during the launch of the first national survey on violence against children at the KICC in Nairobi yesterday.

The survey was conducted in 2010 among households covering 1,306 females and 1,622 males aged between 13 to 24 years.

The report showed that more than 66 per cent of females and 73 per cent of males experienced physical violence with a lower rate of the same citing violence meted out on them when they were children.

Females aged 18 to 24 who reported experiencing sexual violence in childhood were significantly more likely to report feelings of anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts and poor health than females who did not. About 90 per cent of the females and males, who experienced sexual violence as children, reported the case to a VCT centre.

According to the report, the most common type of sexual violence experienced by 18 to 24 year old females and males under the age of 18 was unwanted sexual touching.

And one in four girls and one in three boys experienced humiliation, threats or other forms of emotional violence. Speaking at the same function, Unicef country Director Marcel Rudasingwa said that victims of childhood violence are more likely to engage in risky behaviours such as , sexual relationships with multiple partners and unprotected sex.