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{
    "id": 617779,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/617779/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 229,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Kanyua",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 981,
        "legal_name": "Priscilla Nyokabi Kanyua",
        "slug": "priscilla-nyokabi-kanyua"
    },
    "content": "The other question around the death penalty is the moratorium. We also have questions on life sentence. A legal aids scheme can begin to allow us to test those legal questions in our Judiciary and in our legal system. The sexual and gender-based violence victims, rape, defilement and child sexual abuse need to receive legal aid for the victims and for the perpetrators. Our Sexual Offences Act, as we all know, is very punitive, so that if you go to our jails, you will find many people in jail on sexual offences. As the offences are tight, so should the trial. The trial ought to be done in a way that those who get convicted for sexual offences have, indeed, received fairness and justice in the process. In that process, the victims need to receive fair and good advice as well. In Kenya, to convict for the offence of rape is one of the most difficult things to ever do. As we continue to look at those laws, we will have to look at the crimes. I have particularly felt very sad that rape can only be proved after ejaculation. That is way too late. The crime is finished. If we are waiting for semen to come and show that rape happened, I think there is a problem. In those trials of rape, the legal tests are so severe that both sides need to receive legal aid. The perpetrator and the victim need to receive legal aid. The Bill is well drafted and it covers the aspects that we would all want it to cover, but the Committee has a comprehensive report on some of the amendments that we propose. The Committee particularly proposes amendments on who is eligible for legal aid - leaving it to indigent citizens, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and the really marginalized groups in our society. The Committee has also done a lot of clean up of the provisions to ensure that the law promises our country a good legal aids scheme and a legal aid mechanism. In some of the matters around resettlement of IDPs, evicted persons and contracts, there will also be opportunity The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}