Kenya: Nine out of ten women face harassment calls or SMS, says report

Nine out of ten women in Kenya have received harassment and nuisance calls or text messages, according to a report by Truecaller. The report also said that one in 5 women face sexual or inappropriate calls and text messages. The capital Nairobi is most affected followed by the tourist hub Mombasa.

"47% of all the sexual harassment calls/SMS come from known people in Kenya, and 53% come from unknown people," the report said.

More than half of all women from the countries surveyed take action against harassment calls but an exception to this was Kenya, where only 20 percent of women take action against such calls.

"For Kenyan women, with little support from authorities and local attitudes, harassment often has to be severe before women speak out," the report notes.

The survey was conducted between November 22, 2019, and February 24, 2020. The sample size varied from 1,000 to 3,324 women for each country.

The report covered 4 more countries namely Brazil, Egypt, India, and Colombia. Brazil, Kenya, and Egypt topped the list of women harassment and nuisance calls or text messages, where 9 out of 10 women received these types of calls.