Frequently Asked Questions

RESPEKT is a youth-led initiative run by medical students in Kenya in collaboration with the International Medical Cooperation Committee (IMCC).

We provide Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) to teenagers in secondary schools across Kenya through peer-to-peer workshops, community outreach, and advocacy.

Students, medical professionals, and young professionals passionate about SRHR are welcome. You can apply through our Volunteers page.

Yes — all school workshops and educational materials are provided free of charge.

Contact us at pct@respect.or.ke or call +254726000527 to discuss scheduling a visit.

We currently run workshops in five counties across Kenya and are expanding our reach each year.

We welcome partnerships with organizations, schools, and healthcare providers. Reach out via our Contact page.

There are many different types of sexual assault and rape. They should all be taken very seriously:

• Rape: Forced sexual intercourse, including vaginal, anal, or oral penetration. Penetration may be by a body part or an object. Rape victims may be forced through threats or physical means. In about 8 out of 10 rapes, perpetrators don't use any weapon other than physical force. Anyone may be a victim of rape: women or men, adults or children, straight or gay.
• Acquaintance rape: Rape imposed by someone that the victim knows, e.g. a friend, date, or acquaintance.
• Stranger rape: Occurs when there has been no prior contact between a perpetrator and survivor. Categories include:
  • Blitz sexual assault: The perpetrator rapidly and brutally assaults the victim with no prior contact. Usually occurs at night in a public place.
  • Contact sexual assault: The suspect contacts the victim and tries to gain trust and confidence before assaulting them.
  • Child sexual abuse: Sexual contact by force, trickery, or bribery where there is an imbalance in age, size, power, or knowledge.
• Dating and domestic violence: Any act, attempt, or threat of force by a family member or intimate partner against another family member. Occurs in all socioeconomic, educational, racial, and age groups. Issues of power and control are at the heart of family violence.
• Drug-facilitated assault: When drugs or alcohol compromise an individual's ability to consent to sexual activity. Perpetrators use drugs and alcohol to minimize the victim's ability to resist and their memories of the assault. Alcohol remains the most commonly used substance, but perpetrators also use Rohypnol, GHB, GBL, and others.
• Hate crime: The victimization of an individual based on race, religion, national origin, ethnic identification, gender, or sexual orientation.
• Incest: Sexual contact between persons so closely related that their marriage is illegal (e.g., parents/children, brothers/sisters, uncles/aunts and nieces/nephews). This usually takes the form of an older family member sexually abusing a child or adolescent. Many experts consider incest a particularly damaging form of sexual abuse because the perpetrators are individuals whom the victim trusts and depends on.
• Male sexual assault: Male victims of sexual assault are an often forgotten population — unseen, neglected, and underserved.
• Partner rape: Sexual acts committed without a person's consent and/or against a person's will when the perpetrator is the individual's current or previous partner (married or not), or co-habitator. Many survivors also experience battering or severe physical violence along with sexual violence.
• Sexual exploitation by a helping professional: Sexual contact of any kind between a helping professional (doctor, therapist, teacher, priest, professor, police officer, lawyer, etc.) and a client/patient.
• Sexual harassment: Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favours, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature. Submission to or rejection of such conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual's work or school performance, or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment. Includes:
  • Hostile environment: When unwelcome, severe and persistent sexual conduct creates an uncomfortable and hostile environment (e.g., jokes, lewd postures, leering, inappropriate touching, rape). This constitutes up to 95% of all sexual harassment cases.
  • Quid pro quo: When a perpetrator makes conditions of employment contingent on the victim providing sexual favours.
• Stalking: Occurs when an individual follows a pattern of behaviour that leaves someone else feeling afraid, nervous, harassed, or in danger. Presents as unwanted contact like calling or texting repeatedly, following the victim, or lurking.

Rape is a traumatizing experience, and it is never the victim's fault. Being a victim of rape has nothing to do with what someone was wearing or where they were. In Kenya, there are laws to ensure the victim gets justice. However, without proper steps after the ordeal, the victim may lose the case due to lack of evidence. Here's what to do:

1. Do not take a bath or change clothes — these actions may alter the evidence that police need for prosecution.
2. Report to a police station immediately. You will be given a form that should be filled by a qualified medical officer.
3. Report to the nearest health facility. While difficult, it is important to be open about the ordeal. You are entitled to:
   • A full physical exam including the genito-anal area with a high vaginal swab taken
   • Immediate medical attention to any wounds sustained
   • Post-exposure prophylaxis for HIV
   • Prophylaxis against other sexually transmitted infections
   • Emergency contraception to prevent pregnancy
   • Hepatitis B virus vaccination
   • Psychosocial support

All the above services are FREE of charge. Most interventions have a time limit of efficacy, so reporting early is key. Reach out to family and friends for support. Do not suffer alone.

If you are a victim of gender-based violence, sexual assault, or rape, do not suffer alone. You can contact the Gender-based Violence Recovery Center (GVRC), a non-profit, non-partisan charitable trust of the Nairobi Women's Hospital (NWH), which provides holistic care to women and their families — including emotional, physical, sexual, and psychological abuse support.

Common STIs include:

• HIV/AIDS
• Chlamydia
• Gonorrhea
• Syphilis
• Hepatitis B and C
• Herpes

Many STIs spread via body fluids, such as semen, vaginal fluids, and blood. Some can also spread through mucous membranes. STIs are mainly spread through sexual intercourse — both oral, anal, and vaginal. However, they can also spread through other means such as mother-to-child during childbirth or sharing of razors, needles, etc.

• Abstinence is a way to avoid getting an STI.
• Consistent condom use is also effective in prevention.
• Preventive measures such as vaccination (HPV) and proper hygiene can help prevent STIs acquired from non-sexual means (e.g., candidiasis).
• Be aware that you can have an STI without symptoms — get tested at a health clinic!
• Most government health facilities offer screening for STIs such as Syphilis and Gonorrhea.
• In many pharmacies you can buy an HIV self-test kit to test yourself at home.

If you find that you have an STI, you need to get treatment. See a professional at any health facility. Treatment will be initiated once an STI is detected and confirmed. Since treatment for most STIs involves antibiotics, it is important to get a prescription from a clinician so as to ensure you get the correct medication at the right doses.

HIV is the virus that causes the disease AIDS. HIV targets the human immune system which normally protects us from illness. AIDS is the most advanced stage of HIV when the immune system can no longer stop infections.

HIV/AIDS has been a global crisis (pandemic) for decades, destabilizing economies and development. It mainly affects people in their prime ages, with main casualties being people of productive ages between 15–60 years. Teenagers directly suffer as the affected or the infected.

In Kenya, HIV has been an epidemic since the mid-1980s, killing thousands of people. Currently, the prevalence stands at 6% with almost 100,000 new infections reported annually, mainly among the youth and teenagers.

• Congenitally from mother to child during pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding. Infected mothers can still conceive and give birth to healthy babies if they receive proper medical guidance and treatment.
• Contact with infected body fluids such as blood, semen, and vaginal fluids through unprotected sexual intercourse.
• Sharing of piercing instruments and transfusion of contaminated blood products, among others.

• People who engage in unprotected sex (risk increases with the number of unprotected encounters)
• Those who share sharp and piercing instruments (needles, tattoo needles, razors)
• Alcohol and drug users (impaired judgment can lead to risky sexual behaviour)
• STI-infected people (STIs affect tissue, making HIV penetration easier)
• Children born of infected mothers
• Patients receiving poorly screened blood components
• Health workers working with sharp instruments and blood components
• Genetically HIV-susceptible individuals
• Those engaging in cross-generational and commercial sex

Yes — the risk of contracting HIV is reduced through:

• Sexual behaviour change such as getting tested periodically and zero tolerance to unsafe sex
• Voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) — a radical intervention to be considered carefully
• Use of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) before contact with infection
• Use of Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) after coming into contact with infection

FACT: HIV/AIDS is an infection whose definite cure is yet to be formulated. However, there are drugs (antiretroviral drugs — ARVs) available freely at various government hospitals which slow disease progression and give infected persons a longer and fully productive life.

FACT: HIV is spread through exchange of body fluids such as blood, semen, vaginal fluids, and breast milk. It is not found in fluids such as sweat and saliva. Contact with sweat and saliva won't lead to transmission unless it contaminates an open wound. The virus also can't survive in insects.

FACT: HIV is only spread through body fluids. It is not airborne. People infected with HIV need support from society and protection against discrimination and stigma in order to live their daily lives normally and productively.

FACT: Currently there is no proven cure for the disease. ARVs are the only proven way to manage HIV.

FACT: Some people may look healthy yet are infected, and some may look sickly yet are healthy. It requires a medical test to confirm the presence of the infection.

FACT: Despite the sexual route being most common, others get infected through contaminated piercing tools, infected blood, and other means. Infection can take place even during a first sexual encounter.

HIV/AIDS testing can be done at any health facility. Self-testing kits are also available in some chemists. It is good practice to screen for the virus regularly. It is highly advised to seek testing in case of:

• Rape
• A partner has tested positive for the virus
• After engaging in risky sexual behaviour such as multiple partners or unprotected sex

There is not yet a definite cure that can make HIV go away, but there are drugs (antiretroviral drugs — ARVs) available freely at various government hospitals which slow disease progression, remove symptoms, and give infected persons a longer, fully productive life.

As a special group, their rights are protected by law through the HIV and AIDS Prevention and Control Act (2006). However, they face a lot of stigma associated with myths surrounding the disease. They are often isolated, judged, and even denied access to basic services. By sharing knowledge, we help end stigma and enable them to live a full, healthy, and productive life. It is their role too to seek regular medical care, exercise, and maintain good nutrition for a longer positive life.