A case that saw a Kenyan man acquitted in the rape of a 13 year old girl because she was deemed to be willing was named as the worst case for human rights.
The ruling was awarded the Golden Bludgeon in Spain beating out 18 other rulings to win the worst case for human rights in 2016
The case beat out one in Italy where a rapist was acquitted because the woman did not scream loud enough to prove rape and another case in the Philippines which banned contraceptives to women in the country.
In the Kenyan case, the judge ruled that the age of the victim should not be the only factor taken into consideration as “young girls would freely engage in sex and then opt to report to the police whenever they disagree with their boyfriends.”
According to court documents in the April 2016 case, Justice Said Juma Chitembwe said that age is immaterial if a girl acts beyond her years.
“Where the child behaves like an adult and willingly sneaks into men’s houses for purposes of having sex, the court ought to treat such a child as a grown up who knows what she is doing.”
Judge Chitembwe set free Martin Charo, 24, on April 25 last year after had been sentenced to 20 years in prison for having sex with the 13-year-old.
