‘It’s just you – and memories’: Kenyan rape survivors find help hard to find

A photograph taken by a rape survivor, as part of a PhotoVoice workshop, to express long waits to be seen by medics. Tracey Doyin was ignored for hours after she was raped, prompting her to interrupt an ‘important’ meeting and demand medical attention. Photograph: SSVKenya/PHR

It was during the early-evening rush hour in Nairobi that Tracey Doyin, 23, was raped by two men as she walked home from a grocery shop near one of the city’s main roads. Forced off the street into a deserted spot, they took all her belongings and attacked her at knifepoint.

Two hours later, when it was dark, they let her go. She made her way to the house of a friend, who accompanied her to a police station to file a report, and later to a nearby hospital.