NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Kenyan police must properly investigate and prosecute rape cases, a court has ruled after a landmark case involving 240 child rape victims, some as young as three, which could have ramifications in other countries.
Police who turn a blind eye to rape complaints could now risk arrest, fines and/or imprisonment, a lawyer for the girls said.
“It is a huge victory for the individual girls and for girls across Kenya and, I would say, Africa,” their lawyer Fiona Sampson told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“This is the first order of this kind in Kenya, directly holding the police responsible for the failure to enforce the existing laws. If the police fail to honour this court order they can be held in contempt of court and they can be ordered to prison terms,” added Simpson, who works for The Equality Effect, an international legal rights network.
The ruling came after representatives of the girls filed a petition accusing police of failing to investigate their cases. The girls had been raped by close relatives, neighbours and even a police officer, their lawyers said. Some, including an 11-year old, had become pregnant.
The Equality Effect is supporting similar claims in Ghana and Malawi, and has been approached by groups in Uganda, Tanzania, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo also asking for legal assistance to initiate cases.
One in five women and girls are victims of sexual violence in Kenya, according to a 2008/09 government survey. Rape is rarely reported due to stigma and lack of faith in the police and the criminal justice system, although Kenya has strong legislation to protect children from sexual assault.
RAPED BY RELATIVES
The ruling was handed down by the Meru High Court, 240 km (150 miles) northeast of the capital Nairobi, where lawyers filed the petition in October in a bid to force police to enforce existing laws to bring rapists to justice.
The case was initiated by Mercy Chidi who runs Tumaini Girls Rescue Centre in Meru, which is part of Ripples International children’s charity.
Since 2006, she has provided medical care, shelter and legal assistance to more than 240 girls who were raped by men including their fathers, grandfathers, uncles, police officers and neighbours.
The police rarely investigated their complaints, even locking one girl in cells after she reported one of their colleagues had raped her. In 80 percent of cases, the girls lost, Chidi said.
This led her to go to the High Court, along with 11 of the girls, aged between five and 16, whose cases illustrated the failings of the police.
“One of the perpetrators is actually a police officer who was supposed to be a law enforcer,” said Chidi.
Three of the 11 girls became mothers as a result of rape.
Two had to be moved from their family homes, after losing their cases for lack of evidence, so that they would be protected from the men they had accused.
On Monday, the High Court also ordered the police to properly re-investigate each of the 11 girls’ complaints.
“This is not a quick fix for sure. But it should provide a critical turning point in terms of how police treat these matters,” said Sampson.
“Once we get the police taking defilement seriously, it should have an effect on perpetrators, to see this crime as one of significance. What we want to see is the police starting to see girls as persons not property.”
In February, six women and two men out of the thousands who were raped during Kenya’s 2007/08 post-election violence filed a constitutional case against the government.
They are seeking the establishment of a special division within the High Court to deal with sexual violence cases.
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