9 out of every 10 women in Kenya receives harassment and nuisance calls and SMS. This is according to a comprehensive Truecaller Insisghts report. The report released today aims to understand the impact of harassment calls & SMS for women in Kenya, India, Brazil, Egypt and Colombia.

The report showed that sexual and inappropriate calls are common among women in Nairobi, where 1 out of 5 women receive this type of communication. According to the research conducted by Truecaller with support from Ipsos in India, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt and Kenya,
47{d59e984f9fbc5c09e4ab0305e27bfa5819922b7230cd324f89a660f78358ca33} of all the sexual harassment calls or SMS also come from inmates in Kenya, and 53{d59e984f9fbc5c09e4ab0305e27bfa5819922b7230cd324f89a660f78358ca33} come from unknown people.

The report further revealed that Women in urban areas are the most affected by sexual harassment calls/SMS, with those living in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kiambu and Nakuru reported as the top most affected.

The harassed women have in turn responded to the harassment with Anger and irritation.Fear and worry are also common feelings that arise when women receive these types of calls.Surprisingly, only 2 out of 10 women in Kenya have taken action against harassment calls, and very few ever report this to the authority (6{d59e984f9fbc5c09e4ab0305e27bfa5819922b7230cd324f89a660f78358ca33}.).

The report explained that for Kenyan women, with little support from authorities and local attitudes, harassment often has to be severe before women speak out. 49{d59e984f9fbc5c09e4ab0305e27bfa5819922b7230cd324f89a660f78358ca33} of the women blocked the number, 40{d59e984f9fbc5c09e4ab0305e27bfa5819922b7230cd324f89a660f78358ca33} said they ignored the calls or SMS, 32{d59e984f9fbc5c09e4ab0305e27bfa5819922b7230cd324f89a660f78358ca33} said they called their operator for help, 29{d59e984f9fbc5c09e4ab0305e27bfa5819922b7230cd324f89a660f78358ca33} told the harasser to stop while only 6{d59e984f9fbc5c09e4ab0305e27bfa5819922b7230cd324f89a660f78358ca33} reported to authorities.

Ipsos used a mobile-based approach for data collection and conducted the survey from November 22nd, 2019 to February 24th, 2020.