Domestic Violence Against Men in Kiambu East Sub-county

Abstract

Men experience domestic abuse in different forms affecting them in many ways. For instance, they are exposed to physical injuries, sexual abuse, verbal abuse, psychological torture, financial constraints and many other forms. They are also be abused through law or administrative accusation. The project main aim was to explore domestic violence against men in Kiambu East Sub-County. The study used a cross-sectional design on domestic violence against men in Kiambu East Sub-County. It was carried out in Kiambu Subcounty Hospital Gender Based Violence Recovery Centre. The study sought to determine the men violation by the partners, the various types or forms of domestic violence and find out the consequences of domestic violence against men in Kiambu Subcounty. The study was guided by the ecological model developed by Bronfenbrenner (1977) who describes it as an interrelationship among individual, surroundings, and socio-cultural characters that can result to this domestic violence. This theory framework has been extended and used by many researchers to conceptualize Intimate Partner Violence and the interactions between the individual, surrounding environment and traditional or cultural practices that can impact to violence. The study findings indicate that domestic violence is understood by the study subjects as acts of raping, beating, pushing, economic deprivation, verbal abuse and coerced sexual intercourse by someone they are quite intimate with. Domestic violence has resulted into the feeling of anxiety, fear, depression, injuries to the victims and economic turmoil for the families entangled in violence. Moreover, male victims of domestic violence expressed x losing the ‘community image of masculinity’ hence stigmatized by the peers. This has a negative impact on reporting incidences of domestic violence. This study concludes that domestic violence though underreported in in Kiambu East Sub-County has assumed several forms cutting across economic, physical, sexual and intimate partner violence with negative effect on the family relations, the children and victims. There is need by the government and private stakeholders to sensitize the community on the effects of domestic abuse on male victims and encourage men as victims to report occurrences for timely interventions and a further study should be conducted in the occurrences of men abused to give further strategic interventions.