ActionAid Kenya Programmes Coordinator Judy Oduor says the stubborn rise in gender-based violence is rooted in patriarchy that still shapes how women and girls are treated across the country making them vulnerable.
Her sentiment comes as the country joins the world in the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, an annual global campaign running from November 25 to December 10 to raise awareness and call for an end to all forms of violence against women and girls, with the 2025 theme focusing on ending digital violence.
Speaking on Radio Generation, Oduor said many communities continue to uphold beliefs that place men above women, creating conditions where violence becomes a tool to “keep women in line.”
“We live in a patriarchal country, and patriarchy simply means the belief that men are superior to women,” she said. “So when a woman speaks or acts in a way that some people feel she ‘should not,’ violence becomes a way of enforcing that expectation.”
Oduor also pointed to harmful practices like female genital mutilation (FGM) and what the law calls “child marriage”—a term she strongly rejects. She argued that a child cannot consent to marriage, calling it what it truly is: forced marriage.
“In many communities, once a girl undergoes FGM, culture suddenly ‘allows’ her to be married off,” she said. “This throws her into a lifelong cycle of vulnerability. How does a child stand up to a grown man? How does she negotiate for school or leadership when that power gap is so wide?”
According to the 2022 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS) data, the national prevalence of child marriage in Kenya is approximately 12.5% of girls married before their majority age with the cases more prevalent in rural areas (15.8%) compared to urban areas (9.0%).
She added that economic inequality fuels the problem further, with women often paid less for the same work or expected to remain economically dependent. This, she noted, reinforces the idea that men must remain dominant. “You’ll hear someone say, ‘I beat her because she doesn’t know her place in the home.’ All of this goes back to patriarchy.”
Oduor said ActionAid Kenya is working to break these cycles by empowering women, challenging harmful norms, and pushing communities to abandon practices that place girls at risk.
“At the end of the day,” she said, “we are trying to dismantle the chains and circles of violence that patriarchy keeps reinforcing.”
