RIGHTS: Kenya’s Parliament Hears that Women Who Say “No” Often Mean “Yes”

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Joyce Mulama

NAIROBI, Apr 27 2006 (IPS) - Although hopes were high that debate on a bill seeking harsher penalties for perpetrators of sexual violence in Kenya would be smooth sailing, discussions have already been marked by controversy.

The bill, now in its second reading, was opened for debate Wednesday – when legislator Paddy Ahenda raised temperatures in parliament by calling for the law to be amended. He alleged that a section of the bill would criminalise advances towards women by men. Amid outrage by female members of parliament (MPs), Ahenda also observed that when women said “no” to such advances, they often meant “yes”.

These remarks prompted women parliamentarians to walk out in protest.

After the second reading, the bill will proceed to a committee where MPs will scrutinise each clause of the law, and make amendments if necessary. Completion of this stage clears the bill for a third reading; once over this hurdle, the bill goes to the president for assent, and to be signed into law.

To date, many male MPs have not declared their positions on the bill, and there are fears that – like Ahenda – they may oppose it. Of the 222 legislators, 204 are men.

Civil society groups now want voting on the bill be made public so that they can know the decision of each MP.

This demand came after certain non-governmental organisations (NGOs) threatened to lobby against the re-election of legislators who reject the bill, during the campaign for next year’s general elections.

Civil society groups held a demonstration Wednesday to coincide with the opening of debate on the Sexual Offences Bill; protesters were barred by police from getting to parliament, where they had intended to petition the house to support the law.

The gun- toting policemen were in full anti-riot gear. Others waited in a convoy of trucks that served as a barricade against the protestors – who were undaunted.

Clad in red T-shirts, they continued chanting anti-rape songs as they dared the police: “Kill us today so that we do not get raped tomorrow.”

Current legislation stipulates maximum sentencing for sexual offences – but minimum sentencing is left at the discretion of the magistrate, who may decide to give the offender just a day in jail – or even community service. This is something that human rights activists have taken issue with.

“In the current law, sentences are pretty lenient and people may even walk out scot free after committing a very serious offence. This has contributed to the high (number of) rape cases,” says Millie Odhiambo, executive director of the Child Rights Advisory Documentation and Legal Centre – a NGO based in the capital, Nairobi.

The Sexual Offences Bill, however, spells out stiff minimum and maximum sentences for rape and defilement. Rape would carry a minimum sentence of 10 years imprisonment, and a maximum sentence of a life term.

Debate on the Sexual Offences Bill follows the release this week of chilling rape statistics.

Conducted by Steadman Research Services, a private company headquartered in the capital, the poll indicates that 1,240 girls and women are sexually assaulted each day. Rape has affected girls as young as five months, and women as old as 86 years.

Joyce Musyoka, nursing director at the Nairobi Women’s Hospital, told IPS that of the 1,856 clients with rape-related complications that the facility had dealt with in the last three months, most were children. The hospital receives between eight and ten rape cases each day.

With such worrying statistics, women’s organisations are trying to see how best they can lobby MPs to get the Sexual Offences Bill passed.

“We are following the debate and we are in total shock (about) the arguments being brought forth by our male MPs,” Faith Kasiva, executive director of the Coalition on Violence Against Women – another Nairobi-based NGO – said in an interview with IPS.

“We are not retreating with our campaign to have parliament support the bill.”