Kisumu, Kenya: A few years back, Hon Njoki Ndung’u, now a judge of the Supreme Court brought a Bill to the National Assembly. The Bill raised a lot of heat and most of its clauses were expunged by the male members of the assembly who thought it to too stringent especially for the male members of the society.
It was terribly watered down by the majority male members who thought that the Act would kill courtship and people would be victimised even on malicious allegations.
Successful prosecution
There has been an influx in sexual offences especially those involving minors. Most offenders have gone away with a slap on the wrist. Sexual offences against minors are fast becoming common-place yet there are so many bottle-necks to successful prosecution of these cases even for well-meaning prosecution officers.
Even the parents of the minors who have been molested go ahead and collude with the molester to defeat justice. A case in point in Kitui where a mother is alleged to have burned the documents which would have been used as evidence against her child’s molester.
As if that’s not enough, the courts seem to turn blind or deaf and then definitely there won’t be a case for the defendant to answer.
It becomes even worse when the Provincial Administration gets involved in the cover-up after they have been compromised by suspected offenders.
When family unity comes into play for cases of sexual offences and it goes to the extent that money even changes hands then the abused party is doomed as there will be no one to stand up for them.
This is wrong and even the African culture should not entertain it. There should be no excuse of family unity as this would be encouraging the beastly acts.
It’s true that most sexual offences are committed by relatives who are trusted by the young boys and girls and it becomes a traumatic experience when these same family members turn wolves on the unsuspecting minors and then the parents either deny or flatly refuse to co-operate with the authorities to bring the offender(s) to book.
The abused child is forever left with a scarred personality from the emotional turmoil and the ridicule and rejection from their peers.
These individuals later develop very cold hearts as they grow knowing that nobody paid heed to their plight when it mattered most.
They become deviants at very tender ages and the same parents start blaming the society when they are the same society which molded the monsters they have to deal with.
