Daughters of Nairobi

In the shadow of Covid-19, a hidden epidemic spreads in Nariobi's slums: abuse and rape of young girls. Affected by lockdown, loss of jobs and poverty, frustrated men let their anger out on innocent girls.

Kenyan teenagers like Rebecca, Veronika and Frachias are not only dealing with traumas from rape, they are also struggling to love a child they have not wished for, and who often reminds them of the perpetrator.

In Kenya, sexual violence against women increased by 93% in the corona year 2020, according to a government investigation. Even before that, the level of violence was high.

In a 2018-national survey one third of the 13-17 year old girls who had ever had sex said their first sexual experience was pressured or physically forced.

Now former President Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta has named it a ‘national crisis’ and promised to end the violence. Critics are sceptical. In the report ‘I had nowhere to go’, September 2021, the Nairobi office at Human Rights Watch accuses the government of turning ‘a blind eye’ and failing to protect the girls.

The UN has pointed out the serious consequences of COVID-19 to the world’s slum dwellers during the COVID-19 - and especially the vulnerability of women and children. Globally, the pandemic risks destroying decades of progress in women's rights and lives, the UN warns, calling the gender violence in several nations ‘the shadow pandemic’.

In Nairobi, Rebecca, Veronika and Frachia’s return to school and education seems distant. The victims of sexual violence suffer from mental distress, and some have thoughts of suicide. From within this shadow, however, a glimmer of hope persists.

“One day I will dance again, " says Veronika, 15, her son Sami, 5 months resting in her lap.