Kenyan women workers 'harassed'

A number of groups have been campaigning about violence against women on the continent

Nine out of 10 women workers in Kenya have been victims of sexual discrimination in their jobs, a survey has suggested.

The study, by the International Labour Rights Fund (ILRF) in Washington, USA, found that the women were putting up with the harassment in order to keep their jobs.

"In Kenya, we found that the working conditions, at least in terms of women workers, are rather poor," ILRF spokeswoman Natacha Thys told BBC World Service's Africa Live programme.

"In terms of sexual harassment, it's something that the majority of women have to endure every day... What we found was 90% of the respondents had experienced some form of sexual harassment."

Out Of Silence

Around 500 women, from a cross-section of industries, were interviewed in the study.

Ms Thys said that the extremely high percentage was partly down to the fact that so many women in Kenya are employed as casual workers.

What we're talking about is work-place sexual violence Natacha Thys, ILRF

"They're not afforded a lot of the same protections that normal workers would be afforded," she added.

"For example, whereas a normal worker would be able to join a union and advance their rights and work with the union, many women workers are forced to come in as mainly temporary, or what they refer to as "casual" workers.

"Once you come in as a casual worker, you're not covered by a lot of the legal protection that would otherwise exist.

"So you have issues like sexual harassment taking place on a daily basis."

The group looked at the problem of sexual harassment in both Kenya and the Dominican Republic.

But it was in Kenya that it was found to be widespread.

The ILRF is now working on a film called Out Of Silence looking at the issue.

Ms Thys said the women were having to experience the harassment in order to either get or keep their job.

She added that Kenyan men do also suffer harassment, but that this was not at anything like the same level.

"What we're talking about is work-place sexual violence," she said.

"From our perspective, and the NGOs that we work with in the local women's communities, we're finding that this is on a continuum of gender violence, the same as domestic violence.

"It's a power issue, and where certainly men can experience the same type of harassment, it's nowhere near the same extent that a women would experience."