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"speaker_name": "Prof. Anyang'-Nyong'o",
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"legal_name": "Peter Anyang' Nyong'o",
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"content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, thank you very much for giving me this opportunity. I stand to support the Sexual Offences Bill. I would also like to thank hon. Members who are lawyers. They spoke very informatively on this Bill on Thursday afternoon. I would like to express my gratitude to Mr. Kembi-Gitura, Mr. Kajwang, Mr. Muturi and Mr. Wetangula. As one who is a layman in law, I learnt a lot about this Bill. I learnt a lot about the necessity to improve it. One hon. Member said that we can make better ideas to add value to good ideas. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, this is a Bill whose time has come. It is a Bill which is a very good idea to the development of this nation. It is a Bill whose conception and development has occurred at a time of crisis in the cultural evolution of this nation. There is a crisis facing the rural society which is increasingly becoming urban. The crisis is also challenging the legal infrastructure of this nation. Many years ago, when I was an under-graduate student, I learnt jurisprudence, social justice, constitutional law and administrative law. But those, as it were, are the fringes of the legal profession as it touches on the common man. To the common man, civil law and criminal law are very germane to the day-to-day living. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, as Mrs. Tett has just said, to the father and mother; to the uncle and the aunt; to the brother and sister, the raping and defilement of a child and the sodomising of a young boy is an extremely painful experience not just to the victim and relatives, but also those who are concerned about the well-being of the victim. But laws are not simply made so that victims could be sympathised with; neither are they made so that offenders could be punished. They are made so that human societies can increasingly become civilised in a world in which the well-being of the majority becomes the well-being of the minority as well. Therefore, we are speaking of a law that is going to take care of, not just those who are offended by the offence, but also those who offend as well. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you look at Clauses 50 and 51 of this Bill, some very important statements have been made. This House has not paid attention to them so far. I would like to quote from the Bill, so that we can understand that, as we make this Bill into law, it will still be subject to being looked at by the Law Reform Commission from time to time. It will still be subject to being looked at by the various departments of Government. It may still come back to this House for further review. I am making that point because the House has been concerned about some weaknesses and inadequacies in the Bill. While it is in order for this House to move amendments to those inadequacies and weaknesses, whatever inadequacy or weakness that still passes on will be subject to Government policy, regular review and further amendment by this House, as is the legal and parliamentary tradition in this nation has already established. Let me quote Clauses 50 and 51 on the National Policy Framework: \"The Minister shall:- (a) prepare a national policy framework to guide the implementation and administration of this Act in order to secure acceptable and uniform treatment of all sexual-related offences including treatment and care of victims of sexual offences; (b) review the policy framework, at least, once every five years; and, (c) when required, amend the policy framework. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am saying that (b) should be (c). Those are some of the amendments that need to be done by this House in terms of the mistakes that are in this Bill. That could be carried out in this House without any further ado. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, regarding Regulation, Clause 51 says:- \"The Minister may, in consultation with the Minister for the time being responsible for matters relating to internal security, prisons, social services, education and 824 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES May 2, 2006 health, make regulations regarding; (a) any matter which is required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed by regulations; (b) the inter-sectoral implementation of this Act; and, (c) any other matter which is necessary or expedient to prescribe in order to achieve or to promote the objects of this Act.\" Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, why am I referring to these two particular clauses of the Bill? I am referring to these two particular sections of the Bill because concerns have been raised in this House, and quite rightly so; that, this Bill touches on many other laws in the law books. This Bill is not just a matter of being passed by the House to be a single law. It is something that will need to be reviewed by various other sections of the Government. I do believe that these two particular clauses of the Bill do provide adequate room for the Attorney-General, other Ministers and departments of Government to embrace this particular Bill as a core business of the Government. It touches on various aspects of life and law. That was pointed out to us by hon. Members of this House who are lawyers. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you look at the idea of rape and the reason why a policy framework is necessary and will become vital, rape or sexual offences are very closely related to poverty. If you look at the frequency of sexual offences in many developing countries, you will find that they are very highly co-related with poverty. It is said that when a man is harassed at the workplace for 12 good hours, he does not have proper food, he is frustrated in society, it is very highly likely that when the man goes home, he will take off his frustrations on the most immediate partner or person; usually the wife. If you look at the American society historically, you will find that the element of family violence occurs very much in poor sections of the society. So, if we are going to deal with sexual offences, we must also pay attention to poverty and elements of inequality in our urban centres. For example, the densely-populated slums in our City like Kibera, Mathare and so on are associated with a lot of crime like homicide and sexual offenses. So, a policy framework that is going to deal effectively with a problem of sexual offences will have to deal with issues of inequality and poverty in our nation. That is why these two Clauses 50 and 51 of this Bill are very important because we are dealing with a highly complicated and yet very central element of the life of our nation; the deprivation of our people. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for the first time in the history of this country, we have found a notre into making law that deals with a problem in the nation that is beyond the Penal Code. Therefore, this historic moment of putting this Bill into our law books is extremely important because it opens a door to policy-making and law-making into an area of our socio-cultural and economic life, which is extremely important to the development of our nation. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, this Bill also touches on what I call sexual terrorism in offices, both in the private and public sector. A nation like ours, where those who hold power in bureaucracies and private sector are largely male, upward mobility of our female folk in our nation becomes very difficult. Whether we like it or not, we are a masculine-oriented nation both in terms of traditional and popular culture. Why do I say so? You also need to listen to popular music. You will hardly find a song by a man singing to the praises of a fellow man, except when he is thanking him for a drink or when he has slaughtered a cow. For a musician to praise you, it is because of something good you have done to him; he is returning a favour. But when you listen to musicians praising women, it is usually because of some sexual exploitation and beauty. So, we are both a condescending nation as far as the female folk are concerned, and very masculine oriented. When this comes to the workplace, it leads to the fact that for a woman to be upwardly mobile, more often than not, there will be a demand for sexual offers by those in power. So, this is a reality in our nation. If, indeed, we are going to be proud of our sisters, mothers and wives, we must confront this element of our national psyche and deal with it in a manner that will transform our culture and give legal framework to deal with some of our May 2, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 825 psychological depravity. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, a society that is rapidly changing culturally as is happening here, is likely to experience a lot of psychosomatic problems or psychosomatic illnesses. When you read in our newspapers about a man raping his two daughters, it is not only a crime, but a sign of sickness. Such a person must be psychosomatically ill. This is something that is not just happening in Kenya. I remember when I was in Malaysia at one point and I was reading the papers in the morning, they were not different from the papers in Nairobi. That is because Kenya and Malaysia are going through a similar time of cultural and economic transition where people are so uncertain about their personality and they express it in a frustrated and, quite often, perverted manner. A society going through that kind of experience needs some kind of legal framework that will deter people from expressing their psychosomatic illnesses on other human beings. We must, therefore, protect our young ones and our women from psychosomatically ill individuals. This is not just about men, but women too. When this law is being made, and I have read it, is not meant to punish or correct only the wrong in men. It is a Bill being made for society. When you meet a woman who is also psychosomatically ill, you are in for problems. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, this Bill must be understood to be a piece of legislation coming at a very critical time in our history, and a piece of legislation that is both necessary and vital. Precisely because it has no precedent in our nation, it is likely to have internal problems in terms of construction and phraseology. Those internal problems should be confronted by this House as a law-making body, and not rejected as a perverse experience or perverse expression in the law. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I challenge the House to confront itself with the reality of our nation. This House must challenge itself to responsibility and duty; to look at what is wrong with this Bill, not because the wrong is intended, but because there is no precedent to go by. This Bill was bound to come into conflict with the Penal Code, because it is dealing with a crime, and the Penal Code is the centrepiece law in our nation that deals with crime. Any piece of legislation that deals with crime has to come into conflict, in some way or other, with the Penal Code. But I would urge that in areas where this Bill comes into conflict with the Penal Code, we rely on our lawyer colleagues to help us sail through the difficulties and come up with a law that will rise to the occasion on the needs of this nation. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also want to point out the problem of the law enforcement agencies. I would like to humbly submit to the Attorney-General that law enforcement agencies in our nation, to date, do not seem to believe that there is actually something called \"rape\". They do not seem to believe that there is something actually called \"sexual assault\". Each one of us in this House has numerous experiences where either we have gone to police stations personally or we have sent somebody to report an attempted rape, actual rape or a sexual assault. The police officer at the Report Desk will ask the complainant, \"What were you doing there?\" This is a question that is often asked when they report to police; \"What were you doing there?\" Or even perversely, \"What kind of dress were you wearing? Or even more, \"At that time of the night, where were you going?\" I have looked at the Constitution of the Republic of Kenya and there is nowhere where it is said women must not be out of their homes at night, or where it states how long or short a woman's dress should be. There is no law that prohibits a woman from wearing a long trouser. So, for a police officer to ask a woman such questions, it is a violation of the human rights and fundamental rights of a Kenyan citizen."
}