NITA BHALLA A sharp rise in gender-based violence in Kenya during the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted an urgent need for more shelters to help victims and awareness campaigns, women's rights groups said on Friday. Cases of violence targeting women and girls - including rape, child marriage and murder - rose 36% in 2020 from a year earlier to just over 5,000, government data showed this week. The report released by Kenya's ministry of public service, youth and gender was based on the findings of an investigation ordered by President Uhuru Kenyatta last year into rising reports of violence due to…