The Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) organisation has now called for development of a legal definition and framework for sextortion to enable adequate prosecution of cases.
This comes after a survey, released yesterday indicated that 78.5 per cent of girls and young women in Kibra and Embakasi South neighbourhoods in Nairobi have been victims or survivors of sexual harassment at water points.
The Report was jointly conducted by Kenya Water and Sanitation Civil Society Network and African Civil Society Network on Water and Sanitation.It demonstrated that 21.5 per cent of the respondents complained of sextortion.
“Existing legal framework does not define or recognise sextortion as corruption making it difficult to prosecute. Data on sextortion is scanty or non-existent due to limited research,” the findings.
It further shows that 21.5 per cent of respondents knew victims of Sexual and Gender Based-Violence (SGBV).
The survey observes forms of sextortion included offer for sex as payment for water services and denial of water access for refusal to offer sex as payment.
The organisations also called for training of girls and women on sextortion and other forms of SGBV, integration of sextortion in gender and equality policies as well as ethics and anti-corruption policies, programmes and regulations.
“There is a need to implement legal training programmes, especially for judges and prosecutors so that they are aware of sextortion and how to prosecute it,” they recommended.
Factors that have contributed to SGBV at WASH facilities included crowding at 34.2 per cent and disrespect for women at 28.1 per cent.
The occurrence of sexual incidents sampled was 53.9 per cent of the respondents said it happened at WASH and 20 per cent said en-route to the facility.
The organisations further urged the government to intervene and launch a public awareness campaign and advocacy about sextortion and encourage victims to come forward, speak up and seek redress.
