Partner surveillance fuels digital abuse against women.
Distressed woman. A new Kenya survey finds that digital abuse affects more than one in four women aged 15 to 49, with intimate partners accounting for the largest share of perpetrators.
What you need to know:
- Husbands and partners are the largest group of perpetrators of technology-facilitated abuse against women in Kenya, at 61 per cent.
- Online controlling behaviour is the most common form of the abuse.
Husbands and partners account for the largest proportion of perpetrators of technology-facilitated abuse against women in Kenya, at 61 per cent, the 2025/2026 Kenya Mini Demographic and Health Survey (Mini DHS) has revealed.
The survey, launched last week, found that online controlling behaviour is the most common form of abuse, affecting 19 per cent of women in the year preceding the 2025 survey. It says that partners use digital tools to track women’s movements, monitor their communication and restrict their online interactions.
The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) report is the first to include a dedicated component on technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV). It puts lifetime prevalence among women aged 15 to 49 at 26 per cent, while 22 per cent said they experienced digital abuse in the 12 months before the survey.
Among women who have ever been married or had an intimate partner, 27 per cent experienced technology-facilitated abuse by a current or former partner. Strangers account for 45 per cent of reported perpetrators, online attackers 23 per cent and former partners 22 per cent. The figures suggest that digital abuse is not limited to anonymous online attackers, but is also happening within intimate relationships.
Online harassment and hacking each stood at five per cent, and online sexual harassment and abuse at three per cent. Messaging applications and social media platforms, including WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and SMS, were named as the main channels through which the abuse occurs.
Trans Nzoia recorded the highest prevalence at 29 per cent, followed by Machakos and Kericho at 28 per cent each. Mandera and Wajir had the lowest rates, at two per cent. Researchers link the high prevalence in some counties to increased internet connectivity, rapid digital expansion and intimate partner surveillance.
In Machakos, for instance, proximity to Nairobi and expanding urban settlements have led to more smartphone ownership and internet access, exposing more people to digital platforms. The same technologies, however, are increasingly being used by perpetrators to monitor and control women.
Efforts to curb the abuse are further complicated by high use of social media and messaging applications, inadequate digital policing and weaknesses in reporting systems at county level. Kenya has laws such as the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act, but investigations into digital offences are limited by weak forensic capacity and inadequate police training in handling electronic evidence. The services are also heavily concentrated in centralised institutions.
KNBS Director-General Dr Macdonald Obudho said the findings would provide an important basis for developing and evaluating interventions. He noted that the data would help national and county governments design targeted programmes, while tracking the country’s progress towards international and national development commitments.
Psychosocial support
“The data will be vital in helping Kenya track its progress toward the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the country’s Vision 2030 development agenda,” he said.
For survivors, however, addressing the problem also means access to appropriate psychological and emotional support.
Queentah Wambulwa, a survivor of TFGBV and mental health advocate, says women experiencing digital abuse should put their recovery first and avoid blaming themselves for what perpetrators do.
Queentah, who is also the founder of Girls for Girls Africa Mental Health Foundation, advises survivors to seek specialised psychosocial support instead of suffering in silence. She says digital violence can have serious consequences for victims, including depression, anxiety and other forms of psychological distress.
“Survivors need to utilise specialised mental health networks rather than suffering in isolation. They can access trauma-informed psychological and emotional support from different quarters. Digital harm is a real violation with severe psychological and real-life consequences, such as depression and anxiety,” she says.
She also wants young people and other internet users to understand the different forms of digital violence, including cyber harassment, sextortion, doxing and cyber stalking. Recognising such abuse, she says, is an important step towards challenging it and ensuring survivors understand that responsibility lies entirely with the perpetrators.
For human rights defender Alice Kirui, stronger safeguards against online harassment are the solution. She warns that attacks on women could escalate without deliberate intervention. She said women are increasingly being targeted through online content meant to embarrass, intimidate or undermine their dignity.
“We need greater awareness of this new form of violence so that women can be enlightened on how to protect themselves and what action to take in case they are abused,” Alice says.
Content creator Branice Okanga, who has also experienced TFGBV, says women should not let online intimidation interfere with their livelihoods or ambitions. She acknowledges the emotional toll of digital abuse, but urges survivors to remain determined and keep pursuing opportunities in the digital space.
“Women experiencing this form of abuse should not succumb to online threats and allow intimidation through digital violence to derail them and come in the way of achieving their dreams,” she says.
Meanwhile, the Government is pursuing legislative changes to strengthen the response to technology-driven sexual offences. The National Council on the Administration of Justice (NCAJ) has adopted the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill, 2026, which seeks to criminalise emerging forms of digital sexual exploitation, prohibit informal out-of-court settlements and strengthen protections for survivors.
Meaningful justice
The Bill, now before Parliament’s Justice and Legal Affairs Committee, targets offences such as AI-generated deepfake abuse, non-consensual sharing of intimate images, sextortion, stalking and online grooming. It comes amid growing concern over the misuse of artificial intelligence to produce realistic but fabricated intimate images and videos of people without their consent. The material can be circulated online to humiliate victims, damage their reputations, blackmail them or extort money.
Desire Njamwea, an assistant director at the National Gender and Equality Commission, has backed the reforms, saying existing laws must evolve to address the changing nature of digital abuse.
“Modernising the law to address technology-facilitated sexual offences is increasingly recognised as essential to protecting privacy, safeguarding human dignity and ensuring that survivors can access timely, effective and meaningful justice in an increasingly digital society,” he says.
He notes that although mobile technology has made it easier to record and share images and videos, it has also opened the door to serious violations of personal privacy, often with lasting psychological, social and economic consequences.
The proposed amendments come nearly two decades after Kenya enacted the Sexual Offences Act, which strengthened the legal framework for addressing sexual violence. However, the rapid growth of social media, digital communication platforms and artificial intelligence has created new forms of abuse that the law did not adequately anticipate when it was introduced.
