U.N. concerned at rising sexual attacks in Kenya

GENEVA (Reuters) - Increasing numbers of Kenyan women and children are being raped nightly in displacement camps, where sexual violence is being used to threaten and intimidate, the United Nations said on Friday.

Elisabeth Byrs of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Geneva said there have been 167 rapes reported to the Nairobi Women's Hospital in the past month.

The youngest victim was 1 year old.

"Aid workers feel that number of cases reported is only a fraction of the actual caseload," Byrs told a news briefing.

It is unclear who is committing the attacks, which have more than doubled in frequency alongside an intensification of Kenya's post-election violence that has killed 850 people.

About 290,000 Kenyans have been uprooted by the riots and turmoil since the disputed Dec. 27 presidential vote, Byrs said, citing the latest Kenyan Red Cross figures.

She said the increasing sexual attacks reflected in part a collapse in the social order in Kenya, where the re-election of President Mwai Kibaki has exposed decades-old divisions between ethnic groups over land, wealth and power.

Rape is also being used as a tool to threaten and intimidate different communities, Byrs said.

"Perpetrators are exploiting the conflict to commit sexual attacks with impunity," she said, noting that few women are seeking medical attention after attacks, raising their risks of HIV infection and other problems.