By Edwin Wanjawa and Dommie Yambo-Odotte
As Kenya’s digital footprint rapidly expands through social media, mobile banking, E-learning, E-commerce, and online civic engagement, the digital space has become both a site of opportunity and a terrain of profound risk. For women and girls in particular, this space is increasingly marked by online Gender-Based Violence (GBV), including cyberbullying, stalking, sextortion, doxxing, hate speech, impersonation, and the non-consensual sharing of intimate images. As observed by UNWomen in 2021, online and technology-facilitated violence mirrors and amplifies offline inequalities, reproducing the same power imbalances that disadvantage women in physical spaces. In Kenya, as elsewhere, the consequences are psychological distress, reputational damage, economic exclusion, and social withdrawal.
While policy debates rightly focus on regulation and enforcement, one of the most urgent and sustainable responses lies in building digital resilience at the individual and community level. Digital resilience refers to the ability to protect oneself online, respond effectively to harm, and recover with dignity. It shifts the narrative from victimhood to empowerment. In a country where Internet access is expanding most rapidly among young people, this form of resilience is now foundational to safety, mental wellbeing, civic participation, and gender justice.
At the heart of digital resilience is basic digital safety literacy, which remains uneven across Kenya. Many users still rely on weak or repeated passwords, share sensitive personal information casually, and click suspicious links without recognising the risks. In 2023, the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) identified compromised passwords as one of the leading entry points for cyberattacks globally. Similarly, a 2022 research by Google’s Security Team shows that enabling two-factor authentication (2FA) can block more than half of automated account takeover attempts. Yet for many users—especially in rural and low-income communities—such tools remain unfamiliar, inaccessible, or poorly understood.
Digital safety also involves everyday practices that are often overlooked: logging out of shared devices, avoiding public Wi-Fi for sensitive transactions, updating phone software and applications, and limiting the amount of personal data shared publicly. These actions, while seemingly small, significantly reduce exposure to stalking, impersonation, fraud, and digital surveillance. When individuals lack this knowledge, vulnerability becomes structural rather than accidental.
Protection alone, however, is not enough. Survivors must also know how and where to report abuse. One of the most persistent challenges in addressing online GBV in Kenya is the low rate of reporting. Many survivors remain silent due to fear of retaliation, public shaming, victim-blaming, and limited trust in formal justice systems. In 2020, The World Wide Web Foundation reported that globally, fewer than one in three women who experience online abuse, formally report it. The same patterns are evident locally, particularly among young women, women with disabilities, and those in informal settlements.
Most major Social Media platforms—including Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, and WhatsApp—have built-in reporting mechanisms for harassment, threats, impersonation, and non-consensual content. Yet these tools are underutilised due to limited awareness and complex reporting processes. Beyond platform reporting, Kenyan law provides mechanisms for redress under the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act of 2018, with enforcement coordinated through the Directorate of Criminal Investigations’ (DCI) Cybercrime Unit. Still, for many survivors, the legal route feels intimidating, slow, and emotionally taxing.
Reporting is not merely a technical act—it is also a deeply psychological process. Survivors often carry anxiety, shame, and fear of public exposure. As UNWomen noted in 2021, online abuse frequently results in depression, sleep disorders, panic attacks, and long-term trauma. Without psychosocial support, survivors may abandon justice pathways altogether. This is why trusted community structures—schools, psychologists, faith institutions, women’s groups, youth networks, and civil society organizations—play a critical role as safe entry points for support, referral, and accompaniment.
Community-based digital literacy workshops have emerged as some of the most effective interventions for preventing online violence. When digital safety is taught collectively, it becomes demystified and normalised. Such workshops equip participants with practical skills on privacy settings, scam detection, online grooming risks, digital consent, and evidence preservation. They also foster peer solidarity and break the silence that allows abuse to thrive. Evidence from community digital safety programmes across Africa shows that collective learning significantly improves reporting confidence and risk awareness (World Wide Web Foundation, 2020).
Inclusive digital education is particularly urgent for PWDs, older users, rural communities, and girls in informal settlements, who face compounded risks due to limited access to information, assistive technologies, and safe reporting systems. Digital exclusion does not merely limit opportunity—it actively amplifies vulnerability. If resilience is to be meaningful, it must be inclusive by design.
Men and boys also have a central role in building safer digital spaces. Online violence is not only a technological problem; it is a cultural one. Misogyny, harmful masculinities, entitlement, and mob behaviour fuel much of the abuse women face online. Community interventions that engage men as allies—promoting accountability, empathy, and respectful digital behaviour—are essential for transforming online culture. Without this cultural shift, safety tools alone will never be sufficient.
At Development Through Media (DTM), digital resilience is understood not simply as awareness, but as actionable protection and response. Through this 16 Days of Activism series, DTM is amplifying survivor-centred narratives while equipping audiences with practical tools for prevention and reporting. By linking media advocacy with digital safety education and psychosocial support pathways, DTM seeks to move communities from fear, to informed action. When people understand how to secure their devices, recognise abuse, preserve evidence, and seek support, online violence loses much of its power.
Kenya’s digital future is irreversible. Government services are moving online, political campaigns are increasingly digital, financial transactions are mobile, and social relationships are mediated through screens. The question is no longer whether we will live online, but whether we will do so safely, equitably, and with dignity. Digital resilience, therefore, is not a luxury—it is a public good tied directly to mental health, democracy, economic inclusion, and gender justice.
Online GBV thrives where silence, fear, stigma, and ignorance converge. But where knowledge is widespread, communities are engaged, and systems are responsive, digital spaces can become zones of protection rather than harm. Building digital resilience is ultimately about restoring power—power to users, power to survivors, and power to communities.
As Kenya accelerates toward a digitally mediated society, the imperative is clear: equip the people, strengthen the communities, and hold systems accountable. Only then can the promise of digital transformation be matched with safety, dignity, and justice for all.
Edwin Wanjawa is the Programmes Associate, DTM and Dommie Yambo-
Odotte is the Executive Director and Producer, DTM
