ZIMBABWE: Government ordered to compensate rape victim
In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe granted an appeal by a rape victim to compel the government to compensate her for failing to provide her access to contraception that would have prevented pregnancy out of the ordeal.
The victim was raped during an armed robbery at her home in 2006 as a result of which she conceived.
She sued the government for compensation for the failure on the part of the police and the government doctor to help her access contraception within three days of her rape to prevent pregnancy. The case had been dismissed by the High Court in 2012 but the Supreme Court overturned the ruling in favour of the victim.
According to police statistics in Zimbabwe, at least 400 children were raped and 392 adults were sexually abused in 2013 thereby highlighting the seriousness of sexual crimes in this Southern Africa country.
KENYA: Shoot-to-kill orders issued by Mombasa County Commissioner
Security agencies in Kenya are facing challenges on how to effectively deal with the ever increasing threats from the Al-Shaalab terrorists. Following an attack on a local church in the coastal city of Mombasa last Sunday that left half a dozen people dead and several others injured, the security boss gave shoot-to-kill orders to the police on any suspected terrorist.
A young boy has a bullet lodged in his head as a result of the attack, the same bullet that killed his mother while protecting him. Whereas, the security agencies are desperate to fight this menace, many human rights defenders have opposed the kill-to-shoot orders arguing that it could be susceptible to abuse resulting into deaths of innocent people.
Africa: Heated debate on homosexuals
There is increased debate on the continent on the rights of homosexuals with several countries condemning it and terming it ‘unAfrican’. There are fears that this could spark attacks on gays or suspected gays on the continent where homosexuality is illegal in over 38 countries.
Recently, Uganda enacted a bill that toughens penalties against gay people and defines some homosexual acts as crimes punishable by life in prison.
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The bill, introduced first in 2009, originally included a death penalty clause for some homosexual acts but owing to pressure, the death penalty provision was replaced with a proposal for life in prison for "aggravated homosexuality".
In Kenyan MPs removed a clause in the Marriage Bill that they say would have created a legal loophole to allow gay marriages. The contentious clause that was deleted was the one that allowed the Cabinet Secretary ‘to make regulations for registration of any other type of marriage not provided for under the proposed law’.