Women in Kenya continue to face technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV), with digital platforms increasingly being used to threaten, harass, control and sexually exploit them.
The abuse takes different forms, including cyberbullying, online sexual harassment, hacking, doxing, sextortion and the creation and distribution of deepfake images. Perpetrators include strangers as well as people known to the victims. A survey by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) has identified Trans Nzoia County as the area with the highest reported prevalence of TFGBV among women aged 15 to 49 years.
According to the Kenya Mini Demographic and Health Survey 2025/2026, Trans Nzoia recorded a prevalence rate of 29 per cent. Machakos and Kericho followed closely at 28 per cent each, while Wajir and Mandera reported the lowest rates at two per cent.
The survey established that online control was the most common form of abuse, affecting 19 per cent of women in the 12 months preceding the 2025 survey. Online harassment and hacking each accounted for five per cent, while online sexual harassment and abuse affected three per cent. It also revealed that 27 per cent of women had experienced technology-facilitated violence from a current, most recent or former husband or intimate partner.
Among women who had been married or previously had intimate partners, current partners accounted for 61 per cent of reported perpetrators. Former partners represented 22 per cent, while strangers accounted for 13 per cent.
For women who had never married or had an intimate partner, strangers were the leading perpetrators at 45 per cent, followed by online attackers at 23 per cent and friends or acquaintances at 20 per cent. Social media platforms emerged as major spaces where the abuse occurs. Facebook accounted for 59 per cent of reported cases, while messaging applications were linked to 47 per cent.
This creates growing concerns over children’s safety online. A UNICEF report released in September revealed that millions of children in Kenya are exposed to technology-facilitated sexual exploitation and abuse. The report estimated that 1,292,364 children aged between 12 and 17 had experienced at least one form of online sexual exploitation or abuse.
Based on surveys conducted in 2020–2021 and 2024–2025, the findings showed that 26.83 per cent of Kenyan children who used the internet had encountered at least one form of abuse.
Unwanted sexual content was the most common experience, affecting an estimated 995,260 children who were exposed to sexual images or videos they did not want to see.