Kenya: New Bill Targets Domestic Violence

By Staff Writer

Kenya is bound to makes history, as a law has been drafted to specifically deal with cases of domestic violence. 

The Protection Against Domestic Violence Bill, 2013, is to be tabled in Parliament next week, addressing among others, brutality within families, forced wife inheritance and harassment by in-laws.

The Bill comes in the wake of a report that was released on June 3 by Nairobi women’s Hospital Gender Violence Recovery Centre Kenya, raising concerns over the rising cases of gender-based violence in the country and the isolation of men in efforts to address it.

The report which was unveiled during a press briefing on  '1 million Fathers Movement' campaign, by FEMNET Regional Programme Associate, Alberta Wambua, indicated there was 1,864 cases reported with  physical violence accounting for 16% of the cases among Kenyan households.

Acts of sexual violence perpetrated by fathers stood at 17%, as per 2014 Gender Based Violence (GBV) report.

The bill seeks to protect victims of domestic violence and provide protection for spouses and children or dependants within the family unit.

It  recognizes sexual violence within marriage, child marriage, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), incest, defilement, forced wife inheritance, interference from in-laws and sexual abuse as forms of domestic violence unlike previously when they were only associated with physical violence.

Domestic violence will also include economic abuse, damage to property, emotional or psychological abuse, virginity testing and “widow cleansing”. 

“The Bill criminalizes domestic violence by both men and women, including sexual harassment and physical abuse, “said Nyeri’s Woman Representative, Priscilla Nyokabi.

Nyokabi said the Bill is broad, covering domestic violence committed by men against women and even women against their male partners. “It is really bad to escape terror attacks and other violent situations only to go home and receive some slaps.”

She said if passed into law, the Bill will fill the gap that exists due to lack of any legislation addressing domestic violence.

 “We have various laws that protects against violence out there in the streets or rather outside the homes. But there are instances where violence occurs at home in a space of peace, trust and safety which needs to be eradicated. This Bill criminalizes violence in the domestic sphere,” she added.

In African society Nyokabi - pointed out that family is a fundamental unit and violence in it is a great predictor within the larger society. “It is true that as a continent and a country we want to outlaw violence but for us to deal with violence out there we must eradicate violence at home,” she asserted. 

Nyokabi said this while addressing a forum that brought together women legislators and civil society groups to strategize on how to get male MPs and the public to support the Bill.

If passed into law, the Bill will give police officers mandate to arrest, without necessarily having an arrest warrant, any person suspected to have assaulted or threatened to assault a family member.