Bill proposing community service, rehabilitation for prostitution submitted to Parliament

Individuals engaging in prostitution could soon be exempted from prison time if a Bill seeking to change the mode of punishment for offenders is passed by Parliament.

The Penal Code (Amendment) Bill 2023 presented by the National Council on the Administration of Justice (NCAJ) through the National Committee on Criminal Justice Reforms (NCCJR) seeks to have the deletion of sections 153, 154 and 155 by amending the Principal Act also known as Section 4 of the Penal Code.

NCAJ Chair Chief Justice Martha Koome and her NCCJR counterpart appellate court judge Grace Ngenye submitted the draft Bill for consideration to the National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula during a meeting on October 19, 2023.

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.

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 centre.

"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," reads part of the Bill.

Section 154 declares that women practising in the acts, and have been proven to engage in prostitution in court, are guilty of a felony.

Section 155 tackles the premises used for prostitution which allows the arrest and search warrant of the house of a suspected individual engaging in prostitution or abetting the same.

"If it is made to appear to a magistrate by information on oath that there is reason to suspect that any house or any part of a house is used by a woman or girl for the purposes of prostitution and that any person residing in or frequenting the house is living wholly or in part on the earnings of the prostitute, or is exercising control, direction or influence over the movements of the prostitute, the magistrate may issue a warrant authorizing any police officer to enter and search the house and to arrest such person," reads the Bill.

The primary goal of the Bill is to amend the Penal Code to include human rights friendly language in relation to people with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities.

The Bill also seeks to amend the Penal Code to protect intersex people who are involved in the criminal justice system.