The Sexual Offences Act No. 3 of 2006 (SOA) came into effect on 21st July 2006. This was subsequent to unending agitation from the civil society organisations together with a large judicial outcry on the application of judicial discretion.
Despite the enactment of the SOA in 2006 to deal with gaps of enforcement presented by the Penal Code, the statistics around sexual violence have not significantly improved (as will be seen below). This research examines the legal framework around the enforcement of the key offences highlighted in Sections 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 & 9 of the SOA in Kenya in terms of arrests investigations, prosecutions and conviction processes in attempting to understand and to inform advocacy work on policy and legal reforms.
