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{
    "id": 718177,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/718177/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 121,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) F.M. Mutua",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 539,
        "legal_name": "Florence Mwikali Mutua",
        "slug": "florence-mwikali-mutua"
    },
    "content": "attack was recorded by the officers merely as assault and the alleged offenders given a punishment of cutting grass around the police station. Hon. Speaker, since the incident, Liz is confined to a wheelchair and requires constant support to perform normal bodily functions. Liz and her family have received threats to their lives and they had to abandon their homes. The characterisation of the incident by the National Police Service (NPS) seemed to diminish the viciousness of the attack, and to an extent blame Liz. Hon. Speaker, the 2013 Annual Crime Report released by the NPS indicated that the rape cases in the country had increased by 20 per cent, followed by robbery and murder at 19 per cent and 11 per cent respectively. The report recorded a total of 882 rape cases in the country. The 2014 Annual Crime Report corroborated this statistics and further revealed that there were 893 rape cases, 685 defilement cases and 240 cases of incest, which were an increase of the previous year numbers. These statistics, without taking into account the unreported cases, are an indication of a troubling trend in sexual offences across the country. The 2013 United Nations Multi-Country Study on Men and Violence in Asia and the Pacific revealed that a vast majority of men who had perpetuated rape did not experience any legal consequences. The above lack of legal consequences reveals that impunity is a major issue when dealing with the violation of reproductive health rights worldwide. The absence of legal sanction and possibility of out of court negotiations reinforce the socialisation that a woman’s body can be violated freely without any legal recourse. This notion must not be allowed to breed within the national context. The Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill of 2016 seeks to amend the Sexual Offences Act with an aim of ensuring its better implementation. It also seeks to cure the defects witnessed in its implementation over the last 10 years. More specifically, the Bill aims to expressly prohibit out of court negotiations and collusions in sexual offences which help perpetrators of sexual offences to evade justice and to strengthen the police service to ensure better investigation and prosecution of offenders. The Bill further seeks to require both the national and county governments to promote public awareness of sexual offences through a comprehensive nationwide education and information campaign conducted through the relevant Ministries, departments, authorities and other agencies. The education and information campaign is to focus on sexual offences and shall be carried out in all schools, institutions of learning, prisons, remand homes and other places of confinement amongst the discipline forces, all places of work and communities throughout Kenya. Further, the Bill compels the Ministry of Education, Research and Technology to prescribe guidelines on the inclusion of sex education at some agreed level in the school syllabus. Hon. Speaker, please permit me to refer to some of the key clauses in the Bill. Clause 2 of the Bill seeks to redefine the term “indecent act”. It reads: “Indecent act” includes an unlawful intentional act which causes- (i) any contact between any part of a body of a person with the genital organs, breast or buttocks of another, but does not include an act that causes penetration; (ii) exposure or display of any genital organs, breasts, buttocks or pornographic material to any person against his or her will.” 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."
}