In South Africa it is estimated that almost 58 children are the victim’s of rape or attempted rape everyday. This constitutes 41% of all rape cases reported.
Kenya became in 2006 one of the few southern African countries to enact Sexual Offences legislation, but does she really have the economic resources and the political goodwill for this legislation to transmute into a practical reality? As Kenya slips closer to the disturbing trends in South Africa it becomes necessary to ensure that the legislative framework that is the Sexual Offences Act is an effective means by which sexual offences can be curbed. 
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| In 1989 there were 309 reports of rape to the Kenya Police, a rate of approximately 1.3 per 100,000 populations. By the year 2007 those numbers have increased tenfold and cases of unreported assaults most probably outnumber those acknowledged because the new Act provides not only that women and girls who make false allegations of violation will be guilty of an offence equal to that complained of, but also explicitly that marital rape is not an offence. These provisions are alarmingly reminiscent of the arguments that barred the Affiliation Bill of 1969 where an honorable Member of Parliament was quoted saying that women “must be curbed” and we must not “make men the slaves of women”. Women’s issues have once again, though with more tact this time, been pushed to the periphery. Women have for centuries, been communally classified as sexually indiscriminate and insatiable and therefore deserving of whatever harm they “provoked” from men. This attitude is not defeated by fancy legislation since the attitudes of our society as represented by the criminal justice system are outrageous. The most common sexual crimes, marital and date rape are not recognized under Kenyan law. They are not crimes. Police reports have in fact stated that if a woman is asked out by a man with whom she has no blood relationship she should either expect that a sexual favour will be asked of her and be prepared to yield or reject the invitation. It seems that it would be contrary and ridiculous for a woman to report that she was raped by a man who is her friend or boyfriend. Speaking to a friend recently about her experiences as a victim of rape I am appalled at the attitudes of our society as represented in the criminal justice system. Gang raped in her home by seven men, continuously for six hours, she expected that justice would be swift. Justice seems instead to have taken a holiday and she feels like she is being repeatedly raped: by seven poster boys for “the-scum-of-the-earth” contest and by the criminal justice system. At every hearing so far the respondents have sat in the dock blowing kisses at her and openly sniffing glue, while the judge grumbled at her own difficulty in hearing the case because she had to drive through traffic on Waiyaki Way to get to the Kibera Courts.  | | | For my friend the laws that are meant to protect her have made her more vulnerable, as the perpetrators of those crimes are assured of the incompetence of the law in the persuit of justice. The judge in that case despite having taken numerous oaths of the “justice be our shield and defender” persuasion, continues to justify and excuse the actions of men who didn’t think anything of violating, hurting and degrading another human being. For her the Sexual Offences Act, which even before its enactment into law was applauded as the be-all and end-all of gender based crime in Kenya, means nothing. Every time a judge withdraws from the case and evidence has to be given a fresh she loses precious liberties as her life turns into an invariable nightmare with no prospects of an end. ![rape barrier]()
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| As a woman in Kenya I am not ashamed to say that I expected better. The real impact of the Sexual Offences Act, though a landmark in the treatment of “gender sensitive” legislation, is to reinforce negative social and cultural perceptions of women and of female sexuality as a whole. Though it has provided for women a vocabulary by which they can speak persuasively about the reality of the harms typically and systematically directed against them, in not dealing with the core perceptions of women as not independent and the property of men, it has set us back decades. Paddy Ahenda of the “you know as much as I do, that when and African woman says ‘no’ she means ‘yes’” fame gave voice to the monster that is societal perception and, to use a most archaic and absurd term, patriarchy. It is now more likely that walking into a police station to report an alleged assault, the police will preliminarily reject the claim, or if accepted the claim will not be prosecuted and if indeed prosecuted thrown out of court; simply because, as the new legislation aims more at revenge and brutality (in imposing harsher sentences) than at the prevention of sexual crimes in the first place, it is highly probable that the guardians of the law will be significantly more reluctant to apply it. At every street corner in Nairobi one will find a self proclaimed prophet of god shouting, “Repent!”. Perhaps our legislators should repent at imposing upon us a watered down illusion of a good law and our learned friends, the judges, should repent accepting government vehicles funded by the long suffering Kenyan taxpayer if they haven’t even the courtesy to pretend that they respect the rights of victims over the bribes they unsuccessfully conceal under their lice infested wigs.
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I and Emmo have written about it in the past. Written in water, it might seem.
Alexander
Oh, post scriptum:
You did - by ostentatious omission - not address one of the main weaknesses of this act. You know which one I mean; so, be not so shy. Stay true, act up, speak out; I did it too.