The Federation of Women Lawyers of Kenya (FIDA) is worried about the increase of sexual assault cases directed at women and children since the outbreak of post-election violence.
In a statement released Friday 25th January 2008, the FIDA chairperson, Ms Violet Awori, said more attention was being given to issues such as chaos, injuries, deaths, destruction of property and the economy, while victims of sexual violence were neglected.
“The Government should step up security in all parts of the country to avoid further escalation of sexual and all other forms of violence, particularly in the slum areas and settlement camps where women and children remain targets for sexual abuse and assault,” said Ms Awori.
She said in this era of HIV and Aids, sexual violence requires urgent attention to stop further spread of the disease.
Ms Awori said many rape cases have gone unreported because the victims have other pressing issues affecting them.
Both women and children have remained easy targets during chaos.
“It is worrying that many of the attacks have taken the form of gang rapes with the targeted areas being slums and violence-prone areas where the attackers have taken advantage of the breakdown of law and order to commit these crimes,” she said.
Ms Awori advised all survivors of rape and sexual assault to report the crimes to the police to enable provision of support and security.
“We call upon all survivors of rape and sexual assault to urgently seek medical attention and other support services available for the purposes of ensuring their physical, psychological and emotional health,” she said.
http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=1&newsid=115424
See also:
* Sex attacks on the rise in Kenya: UNICEF (26th January 2008)
* Women and children suffering in camps – Editorial 27/1/2008
* Camps offer little refuge from rapes – 28 January 2008 (IRIN)
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