Sexual Harassment among University Students within University of Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County, Kenya.

Abstract

Sexual harassment (SH) has been defined asa non-consensual and unwelcome sexual behaviour that affects lives of the victims.Approximately 50% of all women in the United States at some time or other experiencesome type of sexual harassment, either in the workplace or in academic environments. SH has been identified as the most frequent form of “sexual victimization” and as a category of violence against women. SH has also been described as a form of social control exerted by men to “keep women in their place.” The Fourth World Conference on Women (FWCW) Beijing Declaration (UN documents, 2004) included SH in its category of “physical, sexual, and psychological” violence against women. This study which adopted a purposive descriptive research design involving 100 University of Eldoretstudents whose data was collected using questionnaires and interview schedules revealed that about half of the interviewed students had experienced various forms of sexual harassment without their consent. The harassments included rude sexual jokes, showing/passing pornographic materials, indecent gestures, attitudes, behaviours, insults and touches resulting in discrimination against the victims by violating their rights physiologically, sexually and physically. Like many other institutions of Higher Learning, University of Eldoret has no policy guidelines to assist institution managers in handling sexual harassment issues. ABBREVIATIONS andACRONYMS UoE University of Eldoret SH Sexual Harassment EOCEducational Opportunity Centre AAUW American Association of University Women UGC Uasin Gishu County HOD Head of Department SG Secretary-General FWCW Fourth World Conference on Women