Chief Justice, Martha Koome, proposed a bill suggesting that those involved in prostitution not to face jail terms.
If the Penal Code (Amendment) Bill, 2023, is passed into law, the country will have a different way of looking into criminal and capital offences.
The Judiciary suggests deleting sections 153, 154, and 155 in the Penal Code, which currently imposes a three-year prison term. And amending the Principal Act, also known as Section 4 of the Penal Code.
Is prostitution legal in Kenya?
Section 153 imposes a hefty penalty on male persons living wholly or partly on the earnings of prostitution or soliciting the act in public places.
It defines male prostitution as “Where a male person is proved to live with or to be habitually in the company of a prostitute or is proved to have exercised control over the movements of a prostitute in such a manner as to show that he is aiding her prostitution with any other person, he shall, unless he satisfies the court to the contrary, be deemed to be knowingly living on the earnings of prostitution,”.
The new bill
According to the draft Bill, prostitution will remain an offence, however not punishable through imprisonment. But through the use of alternative modes of handling petty offences.
These include; issuance of verbal sanctions, conditional discharge, probation, community service, and attending a rehabilitation center.
Section 154
Section 154 declares that women practicing the acts, and have been proven to engage in prostitution in court, are guilty of a felony.
The principal Act is amended by deleting Section 153.
The Bill also seeks to amend the Penal Code to protect intersex people who are involved in the criminal justice system.
By BNN