I hosted an event that raised a modest $3.5 BILLION in 90 minutes at the UN General Assembly in New York! 🤯
It will fund education in 90 lower-income countries so that no child is left behind. My mom was a teacher in rural Kenya so this historic “harambee” is personal to me
🚨 An attempt to bury a rape case through a negotiated "maslaha" settlement and a forced marriage has failed. The Court of Appeal has upheld a 30-year sentence, and confirmed two principles that matter for every survivor of sexual violence in Kenya.
The case concerned Tariq Abduwahab, convicted of raping a domestic worker employed by his uncle. After the offence, the appellant and his relatives tried to interfere with the prosecution and to compromise the complainant through maslaha, an informal community-based dispute settlement, and a forced marriage. The trial court convicted and imposed a 30-year sentence; the High Court upheld it; and the Court of Appeal has now affirmed both conviction and sentence.
Two legal principles stand out, and both protect survivors.
First, a crime cannot be privately settled out of the justice system. Rape is a serious criminal offence against the State and the survivor, not a private wrong to be negotiated away between families. Maslaha, however well-established as a community practice, cannot extinguish criminal liability for such an offence, and Kenyan law does not permit a serious sexual crime to be "settled" through marriage or compensation. Attempts to do so are not mitigation; here, the interference with the complainant was treated as aggravating, and the court weighed it in upholding the severe sentence. A forced marriage to one's rapist is not a resolution; it is a further wrong.
Second, medical evidence is not mandatory to prove rape. The court held that where a complainant gives credible, reliable and compelling testimony, a conviction can stand even without a medical report, and even where some prosecution witnesses, such as the examining doctor or police, do not testify. This reflects the settled position in Kenyan law: under Section 124 of the Evidence Act, and following the landmark decision in Mukungu v Republic, the old rule requiring corroboration of a sexual-offence complainant's evidence has been abolished. A survivor's truthful account, which the court finds convincing, is enough.
Many survivors, especially where families or communities pressure them toward settlement, never obtain timely medical examination, and abusers have long exploited the absence of a medical report as a shield. This ruling closes that escape route: the lack of a medical report is not a licence to walk free where the survivor's testimony is believed.
👉 Follow @Lexken_EMSLaw for practical legal insights on criminal law, gender justice and the rule of law.
My Kids also ask me, What else can you do Papa?
Here’s another side quest where I made duck and goose feathered pillows from scratch little did they know it’s what they’ve been using all along.
Spent a lifetime becoming different versions of myself and can be everything I want to be, but all I really want is to love them for the rest of my life and watch them become better versions of myself
1⃣ The second stretch of my Kenyan roadtrip is done. 🚗☑️ A 🧵
Nairobi ➡️ Narok ➡️ Kisumu ➡️Kakamega ➡️ Kitale ➡️Eldoret ➡️ Nyahururu ➡️ Nyeri ➡️ Nanyuki ➡️ Meru ➡️ Embu ➡️ Nairobi.
1,488 km. 26 counties. A lot of stories. 🇰🇪 Read on.
“Possession of another person's intimate images comes with a duty to protect them, and failure to prevent their unauthorised circulation can result in constitutional liability”
The HC dealing with Revenge Porn, Kshs 2.5M awarded✅✅
Be warned
The Constitution is unequivocal. It DOES NOT not permit ANY verification, re tallying or confirmation of presidential election results after they have been declared by the Constituency Returning Officer.
Articles 86(b) and (c), together with Article 138(2) and 138(3)(c), establish the polling station and the constituency as the only constitutional venues for counting, tallying, verification and declaration of presidential results.
Article 138(10) assigns the @IEBCKenya Chairperson a purely ministerial function. The Chairperson must aggregate the 290 constituency results exactly as received, without altering a single vote, and only confirm whether a candidate has attained the constitutional threshold under Article 138(4).
Section 39 of the Elections Act, particularly Section 39(1C)(b), and Regulation 83(2) purport to create a National Tallying Centre with powers to tally and verify presidential results. Those provisions introduce an extra constitutional process that the Constitution neither creates nor permits.
This unlawful expansion of power has been at the heart of the presidential election disputes of 2013, 2017 and 2022.
The Constitution provides a complete code. Verification ends at the constituency. The National Tallying Centre has no constitutional mandate to re tally, re verify or confirm results. Its role is limited to the mathematical aggregation of constituency results and confirmation of the Article 138(4) threshold.
The High Court has agreed with us that the General Elections ought to have been held this year on 9TH AUGUST, 2026…holding the elections on any other day would be contrary to Article 136 (2) of the Constitution. The declaration of unconstitutionality has however been suspended until after the next general elections.
Cc @Dr_OOwiso@otienowill@Ashioyabiko@KhelefKhalifa