Gender-Based Violence in Mathare Amid Floods and Forced Evictions
Nairobi, Kenya • July 2025
About this report
In this report, we examine the increase in gender-based violence (GBV) in Mathare following the April–May 2024 floods and forced evictions. The research, conducted using participatory action research methods reveals that 60% of respondents believe GBV is rising, with one in five experiencing or witnessing it directly. We link this surge to government-driven demolitions and displacement, economic hardship, destruction of sanitation facilities, increased drug use, and overall insecurity exacerbated by the government’s violent response. We highlight that GBV cases are underreported due to stigma and ineffective police desks, and that the community’s understanding of GBV is limited. We conclude with recommendations for community-led interventions such as education, mental health support, addressing drug abuse, engaging local leaders, and promoting community policing, alongside demands for government accountability, compensation for displaced residents, provision of essential services, and protection of the community.
Research by
Lead researchers: Gathanga Ndung’u and Jennifer Omae
Community researchers: Ann Nyambura, Anthony Muoki, Benta Mutheu Immanuel, Mbatha Munya, Muchangi Nyagah, Rahma Wako, Sadia Bulle, Sarah Wangari, Selah Omuka, Simon ‘Sankara’ Muthiani, Veronicah Gathoni, Wanjau Wanja, and Winnie Achieng
Quantitative analysis: Daniel Krugman
Editing, curation & design by
Brock Hicks
Acknowledgements
As the Mathare Community and the Mathare Social Justice Centre, we say asanteni sana (thank you very much) to the friends who made this research possible. We also say asanteni to all partners, friends, comrades, families and community members who helped in one way or another during the devastating April 2024 floods. For the people of Mathare, overcoming the devastation and despair created by the floods and the evictions was a collective effort outside government institutions and support structures. To the communities living along the river, the crisis created by the evictions was a near-death, cataclysmic experience facilitated and exacerbated by the government. Through our shared sense of Utu, Ubuntu and Ujamaa, we have collectively overcome our micro-reset this year. For this, we are truly grateful for your support. Finally, asanteni sana to Wangui Kamari, Arnav Kapur, Luminate, and Daniel Krugman.
I am because we are — forward with solidarity!
Message from the People of Mathare
We undertook this research to understand gender-based violence in our community and its enabling ecosystem. While not a panacea to our many interwoven challenges, it is an important step towards untangling the cultural and political forces that put our people at risk, especially women and girls. Only by better understanding our challenges can we develop community-led interventions and demands for our elected government that are both humane and responsive to our urgent needs and long-term aspirations.
First, the Covid-19 emergency and now the cataclysmic floods reaffirmed our skepticism of government interventions in our community and in vulnerable communities across Kenya. During a time of great humanitarian need in Mathare, our elected leaders saw an opportunity to enrich themselves, abandoning their sworn duty to represent and protect us. Their response was corrupt and cynically opportunist, exploiting environmental regulations meant to protect us, not displace us and further push us to the margins.
Amid our despair and urgent need for aid, our government chose profiteering and land grabbing. They chose once again to tell us that we do not matter to them. Not only were they ill-prepared and incompetent but lacked the empathy that lies at the heart of what it means to be human. We call on Kenyans and the world to witness how their inhumanity dehumanises us all. Their arrogant, opportunistic response to disaster, through violent evictions, massive unplanned demolitions, and profound failure to provide aid or a humane recovery plan, exposed themselves as unfit for their jobs. Our government conceded to us and the world that they have no plans to protect us now or in the future. It remains wholly disconnected from the struggles of its hustler citizens who brought them to power. They will never give us our rights or our land — we must take them.
We will take collective action to provide for ourselves where they have failed. For this reason, this research project is aptly timed to learn from local knowledge and arm us with evidence to inform community interventions that serve our urgent needs, in particular the most vulnerable groups like women, youth and people living with disabilities. We will prepare for future disasters by forming a holistic response that not only addresses material needs but also mental health, drug abuse, and GBV. By undertaking this research ourselves, we will better be able to self-organize, arming disaster responses from below that meet all residents’ needs and creating a more resilient community.