The Federation of Women Lawyers in Kenya has proposed an amendment to the Sexual Offenses Act so that the age of consensual defilement be reduced from eighteen years to sixteen.
Speaking to a local daily, the Federation's chairperson Josephine Mong’are explained that the amendment seeks to protect the boy child who has been on the receiving end in sexual defilement cases since time immemorial.
“The boy child has become the unintended victim of the Sexual Offenses Act. A lot of teenagers are in relationships without their parent’s knowledge. If the girl’s mother does not like the fact that you have a boyfriend, they go to the police station and claim rape or defilement,” Monga’re explained.
Mong’are who is the pioneer leading the federation into pushing for the amendments further noted that the law will create a platform where young adults or teenagers who are a few years apart can have sexual relations willingly.
“The amendments have nothing to do with protecting predators. If the amendments are passed, they will enable magistrates to have the ability to make a decision in determining if this was a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship as opposed to it being presented as a defilement case," Mong'are added.
In any case the law materialises and the amendment goes through, teenagers aged 16 years will be free to have consensual sex.