In the wake of femicide, we refuse to let victims be reduced to mere statistics. Silencing Women, our groundbreaking living database, humanizes the tragic toll of women killed by their partners or family members in Kenya, shedding light on femicide—the most extreme form of gender-based violence. Drawing from court records and media reports, the database analyzes over 930 female murders, 628 of which meet the UNODC’s definition of femicide, to uncover fresh insights into patterns of violence against women. Spanning case judgments issued between 2016 and 2024. It provides a detailed perspective on how these murders occur and the progress—or lack thereof—of justice in addressing them.
This site is product of Africa Data Hub in partnership with Odipodev and Africa Uncensored.
In recent years, media reports have shown a concerning rise in cases of women being killed by their intimate partners. Despite this, there has been a notable absence of consolidated data to provide a comprehensive picture. Over the last two years, we meticulously examined news reports and court data and compiled over 930 cases of female murders from January 2016 to December 2024. Through this comprehensive collection of killings, it becomes evident that these tragedies are far more than have been identified. And that the cases are not isolated; instead, they reveal recurring patterns, indicating a deeper and more systemic issue.
Intimate partners and family members perpetrate the majority of killings. Our analysis shows that in 77% of cases, killings were committed by a person known by the victim - an intimate partner, relative or friend. 68% of the perpetrators were currently or had previously been in an intimate relationship with the victim. Husbands, then boyfriends, are the biggest culprits. In only about 22% of cases, the woman was killed by a stranger or relationship is unknown.
Home, traditionally a place of refuge, transforms into an unsafe space for women. Approximately 72% of femicides take place within the confines of a home. In this context, "home" refers to a shared space between the victim and the perpetrator, which could involve couples cohabiting or situations where the victim or the suspect frequents the residence.
Which Counties are leading?
Nairobi, Kiambu, and Nakuru Counties have reported the highest incidences of femicide-related killings. However, it's crucial to note that due to data limitations and uneven news coverage across the country, this doesn't necessarily indicate that they have the highest overall murder rates. Some counties either underreport murder cases or omit details about the circumstances, making it challenging to determine if the incidents qualify as femicide. Additionally, certain areas lack news correspondents or media bureaus, resulting in limited local coverage that may not reach the national level. This underscores the complexity of obtaining a comprehensive understanding of femicide trends nationwide.
Our analysis shows that most often than not, the murders of women are often preceded by domestic violence. Many of the murdered women were systematically abused by their husbands and partners. A reflection of the findings of The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on Gender related killing of women and girls:“Killings by intimate partners are rarely spontaneous or random, and should be examined as an extreme act on a continuum of gender-related violence that remains underreported and too often ignored.”
But that's not where the violence stops.
The data points out that the women not only suffered from abuse during their lifetime but were also subjected to brutal murder with a large number of the killings presenting with beatings, mutilations and multiple wounds often inflicted through stabbings.
Our data reveals significant patterns in intimate partner and stranger killings. Stabbing (29%) and hacking (15%) emerge as the predominant methods in intimate partner murders, while strangulation (10%) also stands out as the primary cause of death in stranger killings—often following incidents of sexual violence. Disturbingly extreme methods such as hacking, beheading, and burnings have been documented. Notably, the use of firearms is most prevalent when perpetrators are affiliated with law enforcement.
While women, in general, face a higher risk of experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) and femicide, the trends in the data show that women aged 18 to 35 at 59% form the largest demographic of victims of femicide in Kenya. The perpetrators of femicide remain concentrated around men aged 18-35.
Perpetrators’ age
Below 18: 3%
18-35: 66%
36-50: 14%
Over 50: 17%
Tackling femicide will require getting to the heart of the problem - figuring out how to stop women from being killed. Support for the younger man looks like creating opportunities for young men to engage in meaningful work, fostering positive male role models, and promoting education around gender equality and conflict resolution. Community programs that provide mentorship, mental health support, and safe spaces for emotional expression can be pivotal in shifting toxic narratives around masculinity.
After an exhaustive examination of the legal processes, we have found that once a perpetrator is arrested and brought to court, it takes an 4.01 years. It's crucial to note that this timeframe does not encompass cases involving appeals, which tend to extend the duration even further.
Several barriers to justice contribute to these extended timelines. These include the unavailability of witnesses, non-appearance of expert witnesses such as Investigation Officers and medical doctors, missing police files, and compromise of witnesses. Additionally, poor investigations and the transfer of key personnel involved in the criminal trial, including judicial officers, prosecutors, and investigating officers, further exacerbate delays in the pursuit of justice.
The data referenced in this storytelling was obtained through a systematic and meticulous search for female murder cases reported in Kenyan news media between January and December of 2024. It is therefore limited to only cases reported in Kenya’s news websites and reported in English.
To find those articles we first had to know the search terms that would be used to surface relevant articles, and explore which words were consistently used while reporting femicide. By reading through dozens of articles reporting femicide, we identified a constant set of words that are used to describe victims (woman, girl, wife, girlfriend) and the act of murder (murder, murdered, kill, killed).
Using advanced Google Search, we used the syntax (see below) to retrieve all news stories from major Kenyan news outlets with the combination of the two sets of keywords:
Words used to describe victim - (woman, girl, wife, girlfriend)
Words used to describe murder - (kills, killed, kill, murdered, murder, death, died, dead).
The websites searched are captured in the Google search syntax below;
(woman OR girl OR wife OR girlfriend) AND (kills OR killed OR kill OR murdered OR murder OR death OR died OR dead) site:nation.africa OR site:citizen.digital OR site:www.the-star.co.ke OR site:standardmedia.co.ke OR site:www.k24tv.co.ke OR site:www.capitalfm.co.ke OR site:pd.co.ke
To make the dataset more comprehensive We have now included all female murders reported by the media, and included analysis of how many of these murders are femicides according to the UNODC definition.
Additionally, we included data and analysis from court cases.
Data from case law offers insight on how courts determine cases regarding violence against women, the attitude by society (for example, cases where the victim's family and suspect reach a settlement), the locations where most violations occur, the demographic/approximate age of perpetrators, the manner of investigation by security agencies. The data offers insight on the possible outcomes and prioritisation of cases on femicide.
Our research focused on judgments and rulings from courts between the years 2016 to 2024. However, the cases data is limited to judgments and ruling available in Kenya Law Reports. It is difficult to access ongoing cases, hence only rulings and judgments available in the public domain were used. In collecting the data, the following key words were used: "Murdered woman", "femicide" and "gender based violence". The words that dominated the search results were "murdered woman" and "gender based violence". The word 'femicide' was used sparingly in 2024, where courts recognised the activism on femicide in Kenya.
Publication of decisions in the Law Reporting website https://kenyalaw.org/kl/index.php?id=81 involves recognition of sensitive information. The information is extracted in a manner that protects the case parties. There are instances where initials are used as opposed to real names because: the parties are minors; where the case involves some victims of sexual assault and where minors are the main witness. In this instance, there were instances where the victims were sexually assaulted before/after the murder. There were cases where children (minors) were the main witnesses.
