Study: More Kenyan women than men condone wife beating
According to the 2022 Kenya Demographic Health Survey, 43 per cent of women and 35 per cent of men believe that a man is justified in beating his wife.
More Kenyan women than men condone wife beating. According to the 2022 Kenya Demographic Health Survey (KDHS), 43 per cent of women and 35 per cent of men believe that a man is justified in beating his wife.
Respondents were asked whether they agreed that a man is justified in hitting or beating up his wife in eight circumstances. These were when she burns food, argues with him, refuses to cook, goes out without telling him, returns home late, neglects the children, is unfaithful and refuses to have sex with him. The sample of respondents was drawn from a pool of men and women aged between 15 and 49. Respondents in rural areas were more likely to condone wife beating than those in urban areas.
"Among the rural population, 51 per cent of women and 40 per cent of men agreed that wife beating was justified, compared to 30 per cent of women and 26 per cent of men in urban areas," the report said.
Level of education also determined responses, with those with lower levels of education more likely to justify the vice - 70 per cent of women and 59 per cent of men with no education were not against wife beating, compared to 19 per cent of women and 21 per cent of men with more than secondary education.
Bungoma and Embu counties recorded the highest levels of violence by husbands or intimate partners in the past 12 months at 48 per cent. Migori closely followed at 47 per cent, with Wajir and Mandera counties recording nine and eight per cent respectively. However, Migori County leads in physical violence against women with 30 per cent, followed by Bungoma, Samburu and Isiolo Counties with 29 per cent.
Bungoma County leads in sexual violence against women (17 per cent), followed by Muranga (14 per cent) and Embu (13 per cent). At the national level, 41 per cent of women who had ever had a husband or intimate partner reported that they had been beaten, choked or attacked with a weapon; physically forced to have intercourse or other sexual acts; humiliated, threatened or insulted; and restricted in accessing or retaining economic resources, while 36 per cent of men who had ever had a wife or intimate partner said they had experienced the same.
Among men and women aged 15-49, more women than men reported experiencing physical and emotional harm from intimate partner violence in the 12 months prior to the survey.
More women reported being physically abused by their current husbands or intimate partners than by their former husbands or intimate partners.
However, women who had never been married blamed teachers (33 per cent), their mothers and stepmothers (25 per cent), fathers and stepfathers (17 per cent) for physically abusing them, while men who had never had a wife or partner were most likely to blame teachers (28 per cent) for subjecting them to physical violence, with current wives or partners coming second (20 per cent).
Women also reported experiencing physical violence during pregnancy, with those with less economic power reporting more cases of physical violence during pregnancy than women who were more financially well off. Married women also reported more cases of sexual violence than women who had never been married.
Women whose husbands or partners drink alcohol reported more cases of violence than those whose husbands or partners do not.
