The number of rape cases happening in North Eastern Province has risen over the last few months as we observe lock down during this corona pandemic. A form two girl  Kheira Bulle was raped by an assistance chief.This monster not only defiled the young girl but also took videos and pictures of him performing the monstrous acts and threatened to share them on the internet if she chose to reveal the incident which he ended up later posting.

The case should have been dealt with and justice served but this was not the case as the perpetrator did not show up in court as expected on the 2nd of July. According to locals the case was solved under the Maslaha system and by group of Somali community elders.Needles to say the girl's family was not included in this matter, money was exchanged and the cases are poorly handled.

Yet another case of a three year old girl defiled in the same county Wajir where the mother and relatives had to be assisted by the police and human rights activists after they were threatened for speaking about the case.The case was to be handled by the Maslaha system also.

Its very unfortunate that those entrusted with our security are the ones violating the minor's' rights, Kheira case deserves to be handled in court and the monster to answer for his crimes. We want to make an example of him in the community and prevent such cases from happening again.

In North Eastern Kenya counties (Garissa, Wajir and Mandera) rape and all kind of gender based violence cases are taken slightly and the fate of the accused/rapist is decided outside the court by community elders.These has up to now caused a lot of rape cases in these counties go un-sentenced.

This petition is a call for the abolition of traditional conflicts resolution mechanism popularly known as Maslaha used in mitigating defilement cases.