There are so many cases of gender and sexual-based violence against children that have not been forwarded to our courts as the two parties through the advice of the local chiefs have been summoned to agree on the mode of payment but this is not a solution to the victim as she is denied justice as the culprit continues to walk around scot free and ready to commit the same offence to another child within the village-Caroline Naliaka Njalale
Local administration officers who tamper with evidence touching on the abuse of children’s cases with intentions of assisting the culprits’, risk a jail term if found culpable. The same harsh penalty will be applied to rogue parents and community leaders involved in concealing such cases in favour of the offender with promises of monetary gains.
The Butali magistrate Caroline Naliaka Njalale said while addressing the public during the official opening of the children’s court, warned of stern actions against chiefs and their assistants some of whom are notorious for enticing the victims’ siblings to withdraw the filed cases and opting for an out of court settlement. The culprits escape punishment for the offence with the main beneficiaries being relatives and administrators at the expense of the victims.
There are so many cases of gender and sexual-based violence against children that have not been forwarded to our courts as the two parties through the advice of the local chiefs have been summoned to agree on the mode of payment but this is not a solution to the victim as she is denied justice as the culprit continues to walk around scot free and ready to commit the same offence to another child within the village, we want to condone this and those parties found will face the full force of the law without any mercies”.
At the same time, the magistrate stated that statistics revealed that fathers were notorious sexual offenders against their siblings forcing the family and community to conceal the matter before the courts of law and opting to settle the matter secretly.
Many of the sexual cases against children go unreported since the main suspects are close family members either the father’s uncles or cousins and the family opts to hide the issue claiming it will bring shame to the family, we want these cases forwarded to us and we will take full action against whoever is behind the heinous act. She warned parents to desist from the vice or else be prepared to rot in jail if found as the courts will hand them very harsh penalties considering they are the ones to be protecting those children.
The Kabras police OCS James Nyabidi said his team of officers will be ready to bring to book any leader or parent found to be behind the acts and warned those leaders hosting Kangaroo courts that they will be arrested if found out immediately. He called on maximum cooperation between the parents and police to enable restore sanity in the communities and called on the public to divulge any information concerning sexual offences to them as soon as they hear it to prompt arrest.
On his part, the Butali Chief Magistrate Sumsang Kepng’elon called on community elders to continue instilling good and upright moral values in the society to ensure that community vices are respected and upheld. Officials from I Care a local nongovernmental organization operating in the upper part of Kakamega County led by John Kariuki stated that most of the sexual offence committed against children is by a very close family member with unknown persons only contributing a paltry 0.4 % with fathers and mothers being on the forefront. “We conduct a community based paralegal training through legal resource foundation and we are where we are members of the national paralegal society of Kenya where we work closely with the courts police and other stakeholders to unravel human rights cases in the community including defilement and try to establish the root cause”
He stated that their finding indicates that high levels of poverty, poor housing, and foster families play a crucial role in these cases, he called on all stakeholders to embrace the children act of 2003 and the sexual offences act of 2006 where it has set a minimum sentence for the offenders that prohibit the courts against sentencing the culprits fewer years than those stipulated. He called on close collaboration with the relevant bodies to work closely together to ensure justice prevails for the affected children.
By Andanje Wakhungu
