UNICEF: Children at risk in Kenya

Children and women have been the main victims of violence in Kenya, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), which is calling attention to growing sexual violence and seeking resources to fight it.

Photo: UNICEF: Children at risk in Kenya

The two leaders in the disputed election, President Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga, have accepted the mediation of former Secretary General of the UN, Kofi Annan, and other eminent African leaders, while UNICEF pointed out increased incidents of sexual abuse against children, adolescents and women.

Preliminary reports indicate "the tragedy of girls and women in informal camps who sell sex for biscuits, protection, transportation, or are violated / raped while trying to go to a latrine at night."

The Center for Rehabilitation of Violence in Mombasa said that cases of sexual violence had doubled since the disputed election and there was an increase in sexual assaults and rapes by gangs of strangers, most of them girls under the age of 18, but also including some boys, UNICEF said.

Timofei BYELO

PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by

Lisa KARPOVA

PRAVDA.Ru