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{
"id": 251406,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/251406/?format=api",
"text_counter": 316,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Kajwang",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 164,
"legal_name": "Gerald Otieno Kajwang",
"slug": "otieno-kajwang"
},
"content": "792 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 27, 2006 I have heard of trafficking in the Press, but I do not know what it is. However, it is defined here in the Penal Code that if you take a woman anywhere in Kenya or outside the Republic of Kenya with a view to making sure that you are paid for men to access her, then of course, that is an offence. So, why use language which is scary. It is the packaging part that makes it come out as something so terrible that unless we pass this Bill, Kenya inaungua ! We are not about to go to hell yet. I am seeing a fire there, so I have to quickly put it off. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is something else about touching a sexual organ. There is no excuse that someone does it with a woman's consent. Rape is of course having carnal knowledge without consent. However, there is another offence they have defined here under indecent acts, which also includes touching the private parts. If you touch the private parts of a woman, even with her consent, you are in trouble. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, what makes this proposed law so bad is its packaging. The second thing is the minimum sentence. lawyers, or drafters, of the Penal Code were not blind to the fact that any woman could use the excuse that she has been raped, or that there has been an attempted rape on her, to fix men. If you are her boss and you are harassing her in ways other than sexual, she can report you to the police. This can also be done by a woman who is married to you. If you earn Kshs1 million and you drink it with friends, and she does not see your money she can fix you. If she suspects that you slept somewhere with a friend, she can tell you that unless you bring that Kshs1 million, I am fixing you for 10 years. She can do that as this Bill provides for it. So, if you put a minimum sentence you remove from the magistrates the power of discretion, which is very necessary in law. I will give you an example. If a magistrate is listening to a rape case and finds that you are actually husband and wife, he or she listens to the circumstances in which the rape was committed, they can say that a rape has been committed, but because you are husband and wife and I have listened to every circumstance, you will be imprisoned for one day. Many people have been jailed for one day. If you go to court and the magistrate listens and finds out that your are boyfriend and a girlfriend, and have been sleeping here and there, then one day the girl said no, but the boy kind of forced her into sex, the magistrate can look at all the circumstances and jail the boy for one day. The magistrate may ask the girl: Do you love this boy? She may say: Of course I love him but he forced me into sex. The magistrate may say: Well, one day's imprisonment will do. But if you fix a minimum mandatory sentence of 10 years and my son, who is 17 goes out with a girl, who is 17, they dance at Carnivore, drink there, as they usually do, and then tumble in the hay, then the girl says she has been raped, the magistrate will have no discretion to exercise. He may say: Well, I sympathise with the young man. This is really terrible; you had one too many and you are also young people."
}