Kisii pupils in mock sex video need counselling
Some of the teachers who were arrested following a viral video compelling pupils to perform indecent acts, when they before the magistrate court in Ogembo Law Courts in Kisii on February 2, 2022.
What you need to know:
- The act of watching children engage in indecent behaviour calls for a reminder on each Kenya’s role in protecting children from mental anguish.
- Section 22(1) of the Sexual Offences Act (2006) underlines that no person is to cause a child psychological abuse.
Last week, a video was widely circulated on social media showing four school boys simulating sex before teachers at a school in Kisii County.
The act of watching children engage in indecent behaviour whether it was a fact-finding mission or not, recording it and sharing it in a platform where millions of people can access it, calls for a reminder on each Kenya’s role in protecting children from further harm, torture, humiliation and mental anguish.
It is illegal to intentionally compel an individual whether a child or an adult to engage in indecent act.
Section 6(d) (ii) of the Sexual Offences Act (2006) penalises a convict with not less than five years in prison for intentionally and unlawfully compelling or inducing another person to engage in an indecent act when the person is “incapable in law of appreciating the nature of an indecent act.” In this case a child.
Section 8 (1) of the Children Act (2022) prioritises the best interests of a child. It states that “In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies,” the best interests of the child shall be the primary consideration.
The seven teachers - five women and two men - have already been arrested and their case is ongoing at a Magistrate Court in Kisii. Did they do what they did with the children’s best interests at heart?
Did the supposedly subordinate staff member, who recorded the video to show the boys' parents how their children were getting spoiled, but ended up sharing on social media do it in the best interest of the children?
Psychological abuse
Further in Section 22(1) of the same legislation underlines that no person is to cause a child psychological abuse, a crime that earns one up to five years in prison or a fine of up to Sh2 million.
Already, Gucha branch Kenya National Union of Teachers Executive Secretary Lucy Machuka, has claimed that the teachers were on a “fact-finding mission to collect evidence of the children’s alleged indulgence in indecent behaviour,”
But that kind of procedure is “more traumatising and humiliating to the children,” points out Ilham Hisham, an advocate of the High Court. And the boys need counselling.
“They need psychosocial support,” she says.
“They (the boys) were scared. If you look at the second lot, he even had tears, you could see him wipe the face.”
