International award of the world’s worst court decision for women’s rights in the past year has been given to a Malindi High Court judge’s decision to set free a man convicted for defiling a 13-year-old.
The had ruled that the minor seemed willing to have sex with the man.
The verdict by the Kenyan judge was voted the worst and awarded the Golden Bludgeon award by Women’s Link Worldwide, an international organization of women in the legal fraternity.
On April 25, 2016, Justice Said Juma Chitembwe set aside a 20-year jail sentence that a magistrate court had handed to Martin Charo, 24, after convicting him of defiling the girl between December 2011 and January 2012 in Kilifi County.
The ruling was mentioned during the Gender Justice Uncovered Awards that recognizes the best and worst court rulings on gender equality from all over the world. Justice Chitembwe’s ruling was rated alongside 18 other worst cases with an Italian court’s decision receiving Silver Bludgeon Award for acquitting a man who raped his co-worker after stating the woman did not scream loud enough.
In the ruling, the Kenyan judge acknowledged that under the Sexual Offenses Act, a child below 18 years old cannot give consent to sexual intercourse but went ahead to overturn the 20-year jail term siting the girl behaving like a grown up despite her age. “Where the child behaves like an adult and willingly sneaks into men’s houses for purposes of having sex, the court ought to treat such a child as a grown-up who knows what she is doing.” Observed the judge.
The Judge ruled that “It would be unfair to have the appellant serve 20-years behind bars yet PW1 was after sex from him.”