Gender-Based Violence and Associated Factors Among Adolescent Girls in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Turkana County, Kenya

Gender Based Violence (GBV) has been rampant in refugee camps as documented by the Independent International Commission of inquiry. Incidences were reported in 45% of Syrian refugees who resided in Lebanon refugee camps and 47 % of those who dwelt in Kurdistan region of Iraq. In Uganda 425 incidences were reported from 13 districts. 61% of women accessing GBV centers in Dadaab Refugee camp reported an increase in intimate partner violence. The broad objective of this study was to determine Gender based violence and associated factors among adolescent girls. The Ecological Model of Violence guided this research. The specific objectives were to determine the prevalence of gender-based violence. The study adopted analytical cross-sectional research design. The number of adolescents who reside in Kakuma Refugee camp is 16307 as per the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees [UNHCR] records. This study was done in all the 4 regions of Kakuma Refugee camp (Kakuma 1, Kakuma 2, Kakuma 3 and Kakuma 4) which were purposely selected to ensure proper representation of all nationalities and diverse cultural backgrounds. Using simple random sampling researcher picked the first student on the admission list and every fifth student on that list for interview. However, the number of participants was proportionate to the population of adolescent girls in that region as follows: - Kakuma 1 had 132 respondents representing 34.38%, Kakuma 2 had 116 respondents representing 30.21%, Kakuma 386 respondents representing 22.4% while Kakuma 4 had 50 respondents representing 13.02%. This gave a sample size of 384 respondents as demonstrated by the Fischer’s formula. Quantitative data was collected in this study through questionnaires. Self-administered questionnaires were used for literate middle and late adolescents under the supervision of research assistants. Ethical consideration was approval from Kenyatta University Ethics and research committee, National Commission for Science Technology and Innovation, and the camp leadership, while informed consent and assent was signed by the respondents. Descriptive statistics were used to determine prevalence of gender based violence. The overall prevalence of adolescent GBV in Kakuma refugee camp was found out to be 60.4%. From composite analysis, the overall prevalence of sexual violence was 22.7%, physical violence 52.1% while emotional violence was at 48.7%. This study concluded that In Kakuma Refugee Camp, it was found out that the prevalence of physical violence was the highest form of adolescent GBV. To improve the overall welfare of teenage girls, this research recommended that initiatives reinforcing social support systems should be improved, boost the efficacy of governmental interventions, and execute targeted interventions that specifically tackle the underlying factors contributing to gender-based violence, such as poverty and cultural norms.