Global Progress Towards Ending the Sexual Exploitation of Children
A global problem requires truly global solutions to address the sexual exploitation of children.
Indicators
Age of Consent
Partial
Age of sexual consent is 18 years. The national legislation does not provide for a close-in-age exception.
Disrupting Harm Kenya Report, 2021
Extraterritoriality & Extradition
No
Active and passive extraterritoriality is provided for SEC-related offences when the offence is committed by a Kenyan national or resident against a Kenyan national. This excludes offences committed outside Kenya by a non-resident or non-citizen against a Kenyan citizen or resident, unless the offender is present in Kenya after the commission of the offence. Double criminality is required in cases of extraterritoriality.
Extradition requires a minimum gravity of one year of imprisonment and double criminality.
DH Legal Analysis Kenya and SECTT Legal Checklist Kenya, 2020
CSAM Definition
No
The national legislation does not provide a definition of CSAM which is in line with international standards. The definition provided does not include depictions of the sexual parts of a child’s body for primarily sexual purposes. Positively, the definition includes material depicting a person appearing to be a child as well as computer/digitally generated CSAM. Although the definition refers to audio as well as image material it could exclude other forms of CSAM such as writings.
Disrupting Harm Kenya Report, 2021
Background Check Required
Partial
There are no mandatory legal provisions for criminal background checks. However failing to disclose a sexual offence conviction when applying for employment involving contact with children amounts to an offence punished with at least three years of imprisonment, a fine of not less than fifty thousand shillings or to both. Court might also declare convicted sex offenders unable to seek employment of a specified nature.
SECTT Legal Checklist Kenya, 2020
National Commitments
No
Kenya has ratified the CRC, the Trafficking Protocol and the ILO Convention No. 182.
Kenya has also ratified the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.
Kenya has not ratified the OPSC, the OPIC, the UNWTO Framework Convention on Tourism Ethics nor the AU Convention on Cyber Security and the Council of Europe's Lanzarote and Budapest Conventions.
SECTT Legal Checklist Kenya, 2020
Child Advocacy Centers
No
There is currently no Child Advocacy Centres established in Kenya
Disrupting Harm Kenya Report, 2021
SEC Police Unit
Yes
The main police unit that includes SEC in its mandate is the Anti-Human Trafficking and Child Protection Unit which carries out investigations on SEC cases including online child sexual exploitation and abuse. The unit is composed by three departments: cyber-operations, victim identification and forensic lab. This unit seems to be effectively functioning.
Disrupting Harm Kenya Report, 2021
Protection Standards Travel and Tourism
No
There are no child protection standards for the travel and tourism industry in place.
SECTT Legal Checklist Kenya, 2020
Public SEC Case Data
No
Police data on crimes related to the sexual exploitation of children is not publicy available.
Disrupting Harm Kenya Report, 2021
Age of Consent Law is Appropriate
The age of sexual consent for both males and females is 18 and a close in age exemption (up to 3 years) is provided for consensual sexual relationships between adolescents.
The age of sexual consent is the legally defined age at which a person is considered mature enough to agree to sexual activity. The age of sexual consent varies across jurisdictions around the world and there is no international legal instrument establishing it, however various forms of advocacy have encouraged States to establish a minimum age under which engaging in sexual contact is considered a criminal offence. This is intended to prevent sexual contact with children and to prevent argument that the child consented as a defence.
Often national provisions related to the age of sexual consent include an exception, known as a close-in-age exemption, making consensual sexual activities between young people lawful if the partners are of similar ages and the age difference is not higher than a certain number of years.
To ensure that cases of child sexual exploitation do not go unpunished, ECPAT advocates for the age of sexual consent to be set at 18 for both males and females with a close-in-age exemption of 2-3 years provided in order to ensure young people are not penalised for consensual sexual acts with peers. The age from which the exemption applies should be established by States but may begin for young people somewhere between 12 and 16 years of age.
Yes The national legislation explicitly indicates that the age of sexual consent unequivocally is 18 for both males and females, with a close-in-age exemption for sexual acts between peers (of up to 3 years) is provided by law.