{"id":34993,"date":"2026-05-20T20:32:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T18:32:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=34993"},"modified":"2026-05-20T20:55:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T18:55:54","slug":"kenyan-court-rules-parts-of-law-criminalising-consensual-sex-between-adolescents-invalid","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/kenyan-court-rules-parts-of-law-criminalising-consensual-sex-between-adolescents-invalid\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenyan court rules parts of law criminalising consensual sex between adolescents invalid"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>A Kenyan court ruled this Wednesday that sections of a law targeting sexual offences in the East African nation \u200bcannot apply to minors found to have had consensual intercourse, a \u200cdecision that rights groups expect to set a precedent in how the country handles relationships among adolescents.<\/div>\n<div>Rights advocates said the decision would curb arrests and prosecutions of adolescents for consensual peer relationships \u200band force reforms in policing, prosecution and access to confidential youth-friendly sexual \u200band reproductive health services.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Centre for Reproductive Rights and the Reproductive \u2060Health Network Kenya on behalf of three adolescents, and the Network for Adolescent and \u200bYouth of Africa (NAYA) filed a case in August 2025 challenging four sections of the \u200bSexual Offences Act, saying it was inapplicable to minors having consensual intercourse.<\/div>\n<div>It cited the cases of two teenagers, where one, a boy, aged 17, was charged with defilement after police raided a \u200broom he shared with his 16-year-old girlfriend in February 2025, and another one, \u200balso 17, who faced prosecution after a pregnancy in a peer relationship before charges were withdrawn \u200cin May \u2060the same year.<\/div>\n<div>The two cases have now been stayed and shall not proceed in their current form, Justice Bahati Mwamuye said in his judgement.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Anyone at 18 years and over is considered an adult under Kenyan law.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The groups said the law failed \u200bto distinguish between exploitation \u200band ordinary adolescent \u2060relationships, exposing teenagers to arrest, detention and long prison terms. Authorities had said protections were needed to safeguard children and avoid \u200bloopholes for adult predators.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Young people in Kenya have been living \u200bin fear, \u2060afraid to go to a clinic, afraid to speak to an adult, afraid that a relationship could land them in a police cell,&#8221; Victor Rasugu, Executive Director of NAYA \u2060Kenya, said \u200bin a statement.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;We will continue to push for \u200bfull reform of the Sexual Offences Act so that no young person is ever again prosecuted for simply \u200bgrowing up.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12536,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-34993","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Anyone at 18 years and over is considered an adult under Kenyan law.","published_date":"","news_description":"Anyone at 18 years and over is considered an adult under Kenyan law.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34995,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34993\/revisions\/34995"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=34993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}