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At only 10 years, Johnson Lewis* faced an ordeal that he still has not got the answers to — why it happened to him. At that tender age, he was sodomised and worse still, by a close relative who ideally, should be the one protecting him from social vices.

Lewis was defenseless. He could not even tell his family what he had gone through in the hands of a relative because he felt they could not believe him.

Today, he is older, but still angry at what happened to him, not once, but over a period of time and in the long run contracted an anal infection.

Lewis’ situation is not an isolated case and today, it is no longer a secret that sexual abuse and exploitation of children is rampant in the society, leaving the minors in shame and dejected.

According to the Kenya National Police Service (NPS) 2021 annual report, gender based violence still presents a challenge as many offences go unreported owing to stigma associated with being a victim or survivor.

Shocking statistics

“Addressing these heinous crimes is also hampered by the fact that perpetrators in most cases attack people known to them and with whom they share a relationship of trust,” the NPS report states.

The report further shows that victims of this crime fell in the age group of between 15-17 years.

During the period under the review, the report stated that at least 76 cases of sodomy were reported across 47 counties, with Embu reporting the highest number at 12, while Laikipia and Nakuru had six cases each.

Defilement was the highest of cases reported to the police in 2021 at 5,525 in all counties followed by children in need of care and protection at 362 while 240 cases of rape were reported within this timeframe.

Another report, ‘Out of the Shadows Index 2022 Report’, showed that over 400 million children in the world are exposed to child sexual exploitation annually.

“The experience can leave children with a lifetime of physical and emotional damage, thwarting their potential and their ambitions along the way. The problem has been exacerbated everywhere by the Covid-19 pandemic,” the report released in January states.

Why children are vulnerable

The report quoted Internet Watch Foundation (IWF)— an organisation that aims at eliminating child abuse— that investigated more reports of suspected child sexual abuse in 2021 than in the first 15 years of its existence. 

“In the first six months of 2022, IWF received almost 20,000 reports of images of children between the ages of seven and 10 manipulated into recording abuse of themselves. This is up from 12,000 for the same period previous year,” the report noted.

According to Naila Abdallah, Sisters For Justice deputy director, children are vulnerable in the society and as focus is put on political and economic issues, this generation is being forgotten.

Similarly, she says parents are forgetting fundamental issues of social justice for their children as cases of negligence are reported every day  “Almost everyday, we have cases of child negligence, sodomy, defilement and commercial sex exploitation,” she regrets.

Even worse, is the poverty level cited as a major contributor to some of these vices. “The situation out here is difficult and we cannot always blame parents. In some instances, children are taken in by other caregivers or institutions, but some take advantage of them,” she notes.

Additionally, she shares how children under 18 are the target group for criminal gangs and when such issues are reported, it takes long to find perpetrators. “For instance, we have about four cases of sodomy, but the perpetrator disappeared, meaning that the man is out there playing hide and seek, despite ruining children’s lives,” Abdallah regrets.

She says there is a worrying rise in the number of child violation cases, especially sodomy in recent times, adding that at least 30 cases were reported last year to the organisation.

“I have a case where an 11-year-old boy was violated by his 13-year-old brother while taking a shower together. They were found by a family member. Upon his parents’ insistence, the elder boy admitted that he had been doing that for almost four years! We get so many of these cases, but we do not know what to do. Sometimes we wonder if we go to the police, what will they do?” she says.

 “I think moral values in the society have drastically gone down,” she says.

Abdallah shares that the organisation offers psycho-social support for parents and the victim. They also take victims through counselling and then embark on to the journey of justice.

“The justice system is very slow. Most perpetrators disappear, so the issue of having such people roaming free becomes a big challenge,” she states.

She urges the Government to have an elaborate programme to save the next generation from abuse, even as it focus is on political and economic issues.

“Some of our children are in unsafe spaces and the Government should seriously do something about children’s issues. It should put more training and development of children department,” Abdallah states.

Be on the look out

Nairobi County Gender Based Violence Response unit recently said the situation for sodomy in Nairobi is dire and urged parents to be on the look out.

“When your school-going boy comes home and he has soiled himself, do not be quick to punish him. We take note that parents rush to punish the children without asking,” Roselyn Mukabana, who heads this unit said at a past interview. 

“We are noting a high number of children undergoing sodomy, in fact in our data we almost had about 100 last year and most of these boys range from the ages of four to 15. Most of these cases are either being done within the school compound with children of their same age or with adults,” she added. 

The county said it is also empowering children to know what needs to be done in such instances because sodomy is associated with high levels of stigma and the boys may not be able to report it.

She said the county Government has taken it upon itself to ensure it is creating awareness through the school programme and to not only talk about sodomy, but also cases of sexual and gender based violence.

This is being done using appropriate age language, so that they can give information that children can be able to work with.