Authored By: Chelsea Awuor Omondi
I.Introduction
On 27 January 2024, approximately 20,000 Kenyans marched in a countrywide protest for the criminalization of femicide.[1] This was in response to a spike in such killings which led to the death of at least 10 women in that month alone.[2] The Africa Data Hub’s Silencing Women documented over 1069 female murders between 2016 and 2025, out of which 842 were femicides.[3] Despite these alarming statistics, there is still no specific legal provision that labels femicide as a crime in Kenya.
Femicide can generally be understood as the intentional killing of a woman or girl by virtue of them being female.[4] Typically, it stems from unequal power dynamics, discriminatory societal norms, or a perceived entitlement to restrict women’s autonomy.[5] Presently, the killing of a woman simply for being a woman is prosecuted under the same provisions for other homicides. This blurring of the two categories, femicide and homicide, fails to consider the gender-specific motives and power imbalances that perpetuate the former.[6] Additionally, it fails to provide the investigating agencies, prosecutors and judges with the necessary mechanisms for effective prosecution of the crime. The Constitution of Kenya guarantees the right to life along with the freedom from all forms of cruelty and degradation as well as non-discrimination based on sex.[7] Yet no subsidiary legislation translates these guarantees into an operative definition of gender-based murder.
This article argues that Kenya’s reliance on generic homicide provisions in prosecuting femicide cases is a structural flaw that can be remedied with a standalone Femicide Act. Section II outlines the existing legal framework while Section III evaluates how courts have interpreted this framework in recent case law. The next section shall critique the framework and identify its weaknesses. Lastly, Section V shall draw lessons from comparative femicide legislation and propose suitable recommendations for Kenya’s context.
II. Legal Framework
1.The Constitution of Kenya 2010.
The Constitution of Kenya 2010, guarantees everyone’s right to life.[8] It goes ahead to prohibit torture and cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment, as well as the freedom from all kinds of violence from public and private sources.[9] Additionally, Article 27 provides for equality before the law and freedom from direct or indirect discrimination on grounds any ground including sex.[10] All these provisions form the basis of evaluating any form of gender-based killing. However, these are only principles not offenses. They create no cause of action on their own hence subsidiary legislation is required for effective enforcement.
2.The Penal Code (Cap 63)
Kenya’s operative homicide law is the Penal Code (Cap 63). It addresses murder under section 203 and manslaughter under section 205, with malice aforethought set out in section 206.[11] However, these provisions are gender-neutral and focus primarily on whether the accused caused the death within the statutory elements of the offence. A murder resulting from a refusal of a marriage proposal, an attempt to leave a relationship, or a dispute over inheritance rights, is indistinguishable from other murders under the Penal Code. Although the gendered motive is necessary in understanding femicide, it is often excluded from the evidentiary record entirely. Consequently, the failure to identify gender-related patterns conceals the nature of such murders, interferes with effective data collection and impairs prevention measures.[12]
3.The Protection Against Domestic Violence Act 2015
The Protection Against Domestic Violence Act, 2015 addresses violence in domestic relationships, and is primarily concerned with the granting of protection orders.[13] Nevertheless, it is a civil-protective measure and not a criminal law. The Act aims to prevent the violence from escalating to a tragic end, rather than to regulate how cases of violence should be prosecuted after the fact. Where, a woman ends up killed, despite the efforts, the Act is inapplicable. Such a case is revers to the Penal Code’s general rules on homicide, meaning that the Act’s recognition of coercive control and the circumstances surrounding the abuse fails to translate into a distinct offence within the criminal trial.
4.The Legislative Gap
None of the statutes discussed above define femicide, outline its elements, or imposes obligations for a gender-sensitive investigation. FIDA-Kenya has publicly pushed for the criminalization of femicide in legislation, arguing that doing so will help improve coordination between the police, prosecution, and social services.[14] Additionally, the National Council on the Administration of Justice has endorsed a draft Sexual Offences Bill 2026, aimed at improving the framework related to sexual and gender-based violence.[15] These facts suggest that there is some ongoing political activity regarding reforms. However, no pending bills introduce femicide as an independent crime. This article further explores the effects of lack of legislative action in this matter.
III.Case Law Analysis
Despite the lack of specific legislation on femicide, Kenyan courts have attempted to tackle the issue. Given the absence of a stand-alone crime of femicide in Kenyan law, the case of Republic v Otieno reveals how Kenyan courts are left to recognise the gendered dimension of a killing through sentencing discretion alone, rather than through any binding legal definition. The High Court of Kisumu, convicted and sentenced to the accused to a term of imprisonment of forty years for murdering his girlfriend, a twenty-three-year-old college student.[16] The accused had come from Nairobi to Kisumu, used a false identification card, enticed the victim from her college, and fled back to Nairobi shortly after committing the crime without detection except through telephone records of the accused. In sentencing him, Aburili J expressly classified the matter as a gender-based violence case before exercising discretion to impose the forty-year term.[17]
In the case above, the court reached its sentence by applying the Judiciary Sentencing Policy Guidelines 2023,which include demonstrable hostility towards the victim based on gender or sex as one of the aggravating factors related to murder.[18] This case also relied on the principle of resentencing laid out in Francis Karioko Muruatetu & 6 Others v Director of Public Prosecutions. This particular case is relevant to this analysis since it is the precedent which gave rise to the discretionary framework of murder sentencing.[19] The Supreme Court declared the mandatory death sentence for murder unconstitutional. Muruatetu laid out a framework of assessing the offender’s culpability, rather than imposing a pre-determined sentence.[20] It is this discretion-based culpability assessment architecture, and not a specific provision against femicide, which allowed Aburili J the flexibility to label this as a gender-based murder.
Currently, gender based hostility towards a victim is only one of the 15 aggravating factors mentioned in the Guidelines.[21] It carries no distinct evidentiary threshold of its own. Its application depends entirely on a particular trial judge’s decision to treat the killing as gender-based rather than as a typical homicide. There is no provision in the Guidelines that requires such classification in any future case. What emerges is a sentencing system which can recognize and deal with the gender element in a killing but makes no guarantee that it will do so. This analysis confirms the legal gap identified in the previous section. Since there is no definition of femicide in any statute or a requirement for courts to treat gender-based motive as a distinct element of the offence, courts have no binding legal provision for its recognition. Consequently, the consideration of gender-based motive in sentencing depends entirely on individual judicial discretion.
IV.Critical Evaluation
Republic v Otieno reveals that Kenyan courts recognize the gender aspect of femicide, without there being any law requiring this recognition from the courts. In this case, Justice Aburili was not obliged to classify the case as one involving gender-based violence since there is no provision in the Penal Code or the Sentencing Policy Guidelines requiring the judge to do so.[22] The decision to refer to the gender aspect and analyze it using the discretion afforded by the Muruatetu case shows that it is possible for judicial officers to consider femicide as a distinct social and legal phenomenon. This proves that the basis of a systematic response to femicide, judicial willingness to treat such killings differently from others, already exists. Currently, what is missing is a statutory framework to make the judicial insight binding to guarantee consistency.
However, judicial intervention like that seen in the Otieno case is only applicable in cases that progress to convictions. According to a report produced by Odipo Dev in collaboration with Africa Uncensored and Africa Data Hub, Kenyan courts recorded 78 convictions for femicide in 2025.[23] This figure stands in stark contrast to the 102 killings of women documented during the same year. This outlines the significant gap between the scale of killings and cases reaching judicial resolution. The report found that only approximately 6% of femicide cases reported in the media since 2016 had reached judgment which illustrates the significant attrition between the occurrence of femicide and judicial resolution.[24] Research by civil society and other organisations indicates that treating intimate-partner violence as a private or domestic matter can contribute to the normalization or rationalization gender-related killings.[25] Such treatment can mitigate perceived culpability and reduce charges before a case ever reaches trial which weakens the effectiveness of criminal justice responses.
Kenya does not have a legal definition of femicide, and thus there is no process for investigating cases of femicide, a standard for evidence in femicide cases, or even a national system to track data on femicide. The Domestic Violence Act address prevention, but stops at the point of death. The Penal Code is also silent on gender. Resultantly, Kenya lacks an official femicide database, and policymakers must rely on figures compiled by civil society organizations rather than a state-maintained registry.[26] Without reliable data, it becomes difficult to formulate targeted prevention measures, allocate adequate resources to high-risk areas, or gauge the effectiveness of any future reforms.
It is arguable that this new offence is redundant since the Penal Code already allows a long period of imprisonment for murder, regardless of motive, and Republic v Otieno proves the point. A forty-year sentence was reached without any standalone femicide law. This argument mistakes outcome for process. In Republic v Otieno, the decision was reached because one judge chose to characterize the killing as gender-based. Nothing compels the same characterization in other cases with materially identical facts. Additionally, the punishment in itself does not resolve the evidentiary and investigative failures that determine whether a case reaches the sentencing stage. A statutory definition operates upstream of punishment. It influences how the investigators search for the evidence and how the prosecutors gather evidence. This cannot be achieved through skillful sentencing discretion.
V.Comparative Perspective
The comparative analysis below, which focuses on Mexico’s approach, offers both a blueprint and a caution for Kenya regarding a standalone legal provision for femicide.. “Feminicidio,” as defined by the Federal Criminal Code of Mexico, is the taking away of the life of a woman specifically because of gender.[27] The criminal code lists several circumstances that may indicate a gender-related motive. These include signs of sexual abuse, humiliating mutilation, previous violence against women in the household or workplace, and a close or intimate relationship between the victim and the perpetrator. Any of these circumstances may serve as evidence of a gender-related motive for the killing. The penalty for “feminicidio” is much more severe than an ordinary homicide. This model directly addresses the evidentiary gap identified in Section IV. It informs investigators precisely which categories of evidence establish gender motive, rather than leaving that determination to inconsistent judicial inference after the fact.
Mexico’s example also serves as a warning regarding the overemphasis on what legislation alone can achieve. Despite the establishment of the statutory offence, femicide cases in Mexico have not reduced significantly since the introduction of the offense.[28] This suggests that a standalone offence is a necessary but insufficient condition for reducing femicide. It must be accompanied by sustained investment in investigative capacity, prosecutorial training, and effective judicial enforcement. Furthermore, a global review by UN Women found that Latin American countries which adopted dedicated feminicidio offences saw some improvements.[29] These improvements were specifically in prosecutorial prioritization and data tracking, even where overall prevalence remained resistant to legal reform alone. For Kenya, this suggests that the strongest case for a standalone offence lies in its capacity to fix the specific structural failures identified in Sections III and IV. These include inconsistent sentencing, investigative mischaracterization, and the absence of reliable national data.
VI.Recommendations
First, Parliament should enact a standalone Femicide Prevention and Punishment Act that expressly defines femicide as the murder of women or girls as a result of gender-based motives.[30] It should also detail a number of evidentiary situations under which such a connection between the gender of the victim and murder can be proved. The Mexican model can serve as a template. However, any legislation should be tailored to the Kenyan context and recognise the specific circumstances that precede gender-based murder. These may include domestic violence, coercive control or stalking, killings of women who assert their inheritance rights, or those who refuse to participate in harmful cultural practices. A well-crafted Act should include explicit nondiscrimination clauses to address the concern about a femicide law targeting men.[31] This shall serve as a reassurance to the public that prosecutions are based solely on conduct and motive, ensuring fairness while holding all perpetrators, whether male or female, equally accountable.
Next, the Act needs to grant statutory powers to specialized investigation units and fast-track courts in the context of femicide, following planned reforms in 2026.[32] Having such pledges included in the Femicide Act will increase their sustainability despite changes in government policies and make them enforceable.
Lastly, the Act should convert gender-motivated hostility from a discretionary sentencing element into a mandatory one. As the decision in Republic v Otieno illustrates, the Sentencing Policy Guidelines allows courts to treat gender-based hostility as an aggravating factor, but nothing requires it to do so. No provision requires a court that declines to invoke the factor to give a detailed explain why. Therefore, the Act should require courts to expressly consider gender motive wherever the evidence supports it, and to outline sufficient reasons where they decline to do so. This would transform what is currently dependent on individual judicial choice into a consistent, reviewable practice.
VII.Conclusion
This article argues that Kenya’s continued reliance on generic Penal Code provisions to prosecute femicide is a structural flaw. The Constitution guarantees the right to life, equality, and freedom from violence. However, no subsidiary law defines gender-motivated killing and Republic v Otieno shows the consequence of that. A judge recognised the gendered nature of a killing. However, no legal provision requires such recognition, and nothing binds the next court to do the same in similar cases. Mexico’s statutory definition of feminicidio illustrates that a defined offence can address this evidentiary gap. Nonetheless, it also cautions that legislation alone cannot resolve every institutional weakness.
In light of the discussion above, Kenya should therefore enact a standalone Femicide Prevention and Punishment Act. It should define femicide with specific evidentiary circumstances. Additionally, it should give statutory power to the investigative reforms already scheduled for 2026. Finally, it should make judicial recognition of gender motive mandatory, not discretionary. Kenyan women have demanded a law not sympathy. Until Parliament enacts one, justice for femicide victims will continue to depend on individual judicial discretion which is unreliable.
Reference(S):
Cases
Francis Karioko Muruatetu & another v Director of Public Prosecutions [2019] eKLR.
Republic v Otieno (Criminal Case E008 of 2022) [2024] KEHC 15578 (KLR) (6 December 2024).
Legislation
Codigo Penal Federal (Mexico) art 325.
Constitution of Kenya 2010.
Penal Code (Cap 63).
Protection Against Domestic Violence Act 2015 (Kenya).
Secondary sources
Africa Data Hub, ‘Silencing Women’ (2026) <www.africadatahub.org/femicide-kenya> accessed 20 August 2026.
Africa Uncensored, Odipo Dev and Africa Data Hub, ‘Counting the Cost: A Decade of Femicide in Kenya’ (11 February 2026) https://africauncensored.online/blog/2026/02/11/counting-the-cost-a-decade-of-femicide-in-kenya/ accessed 23 August 2026.
ForumCiv, ‘Over 20,000 People March to End Femicide in Kenya’ (27 January 2024) https://forumciv.org/int/latest/over-20-000-people-march-end-femicide-kenya accessed 20 August 2026.
Gutiérrez-Romero R, ‘Femicide Laws Are Failing: New Action Is Needed to Stop Girls and Women Being Killed’ (Research Insights No 3, School of Business and Management, Queen Mary University of London 2023) https://www.qmul.ac.uk/busman/research/research-insights/ accessed 23 August 2026.
Judiciary of Kenya, Sentencing Policy Guidelines (National Council on the Administration of Justice, 2023).
Legal Express Kenya, ‘Kenya’s Technical Working Group on GBV and the Fight Against Femicide’ (26 February 2026) https://legalexpresskenya.com/2026/02/26/kenyas-technical-working-group-on-gbv-and-the-fight-against-femicide/ accessed 23 August 2026.
Mutua K, ‘Kenya Lacks Centralized Data on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide, Baraza-Led Taskforce Warns’ Y News Digital (27 January 2026) https://ynews.digital/top-stories/kenya-lacks-centralised-data-gender-based-violence-femicide/ accessed 23 August 2026.
National Gender and Equality Commission, ‘NCAJ Approves Sexual Offences Amendment Bill, 2026’ (NGEC, 2026) https://ngeckenya.org/blog/ncaj-approves-sexual-offences-amendment-bill–2026/10845 accessed 20 August 2026.
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Gender-Related Killings of Women and Girls (Femicide/Feminicide): Global Estimates of Gender-Related Killings of Women and Girls in the Private Sphere in 2022 (UNODC 2023) https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/briefs/Femicide_brief_2023.pdf accessed 20 August 2026.
UN Women, ‘Femicide/Feminicide’ (UN Women)
https://knowledge.unwomen.org/en/topics/ending-violence-against-women/femicide-feminicide accessed 23 August 2026.
UN Women, Addressing Femicide in Kenya: Social Analysis, Economic Dimensions and Global Action Perspectives (UN Women 2026) https://africa.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2026/02/addressing-femicide-in-kenya-social-analysis-economic-dimensions-and-global-action-perspectives accessed 23 August 2026.
Wanjiru N, ‘FIDA Calls for Femicide to Be Recognised as Its Own Crime’ People Daily (8 May 2026) https://peopledaily.digital/news/fida-calls-for-femicide-to-be-recognised-as-its-own-crime accessed 20 August 2026.
Watiri G and others, Economics Students Association of Kenya (KESA) Position Paper on Implementing a Stand-Alone Law for Femicide (8 June 2026).
[1] ForumCiv, ‘Over 20 000 people march to end femicide in Kenya’ (27 January 2024) https://forumciv.org/int/latest/over-20-000-people-march-end-femicide-kenya accessed 20 August 2026.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Africa Data Hub, ‘Silencing Women’ (2026) www.africadatahub.org/femicide-kenya accessed 20 August 2026.
[4] United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Gender-related killings of women and girls (femicide/feminicide): Global estimates of gender-related killings of women and girls in the private sphere in 2022 (UNODC 2023) 7 https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/briefs/Femicide_brief_2023.pdf accessed 20 August 2026.
[5] Ibid.
[6] UN Women, ‘Femicide/Feminicide’ (UN Women) https://knowledge.unwomen.org/en/topics/ending-violence-against-women/femicide-feminicide accessed 22 August 2026.
[7] Constitution of Kenya 2010, arts 26, 27(4) and 29(f).
[8] Constitution of Kenya 2010, art 26.
[9] Constitution of Kenya 2010, art 29.
[10] Constitution of Kenya 2010, art 27.
[11] Penal Code (Cap 63), ss 203, 205 and 206.
[12] UN Women, Addressing Femicide in Kenya: Social Analysis, Economic Dimensions and Global Action Perspectives (UN Women 2026) https://africa.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2026/02/addressing-femicide-in-kenya-social-analysis-economic-dimensions-and-global-action-perspectives accessed 20 August 2026.
[13] Protection Against Domestic Violence Act 2015 (Kenya), p II.
[14] Ndiritu Wanjiru, ‘FIDA calls for femicide to be recognised as its own crime’ People Daily (8 May 2026) https://peopledaily.digital/news/fida-calls-for-femicide-to-be-recognised-as-its-own-crime accessed 20 August 2026.
[15] National Gender and Equality Commission, ‘NCAJ Approves Sexual Offences Amendment Bill, 2026’ (NGEC, 2026) https://ngeckenya.org/blog/ncaj-approves-sexual-offences-amendment-bill–2026/10845 accessed 20 August 2026.
[16] Republic v Otieno (Criminal Case E008 of 2022) [2024] KEHC 15578 (KLR) (6 December 2024).
[17] Ibid.
[18] Judiciary of Kenya, Sentencing Policy Guidelines (National Council on the Administration of Justice, 2023) para 5.2.4(viii).
[19] Francis Karioko Muruatetu & another v Director of Public Prosecutions [2019] eKLR, applied in Republic v Otieno (Criminal Case E008 of 2022) [2024] KEHC 15578 (KLR) (6 December 2024).
[20] Ibid.
[21] Judiciary of Kenya, Sentencing Policy Guidelines (National Council on the Administration of Justice, 2023) para 5.2.4(viii).
[22] Republic v Otieno (Criminal Case E008 of 2022) [2024] KEHC 15578 (KLR) (6 December 2024).
[23] Africa Uncensored, Odipo Dev and Africa Data Hub, ‘Counting the Cost: A Decade of Femicide in Kenya’ (11 February 2026) https://africauncensored.online/blog/2026/02/11/counting-the-cost-a-decade-of-femicide-in-kenya/ accessed 23 August 2026.
[24] Ibid.
[25] UN Women, Addressing Femicide in Kenya: Social Analysis, Economic Dimensions and Global Action Perspectives (UN Women 2026) https://africa.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2026/02/addressing-femicide-in-kenya-social-analysis-economic-dimensions-and-global-action-perspectives accessed 23 August 2026.
[26] Kelvin Mutua, ‘Kenya Lacks Centralized Data on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide, Baraza-Led Taskforce Warns’ Y News Digital (27 January 2026) https://ynews.digital/top-stories/kenya-lacks-centralised-data-gender-based-violence-femicide/ accessed 23 August 2026.
[27] Codigo Penal Federal (Mexico) art 325.
[28] Raúl Gutiérrez-Romero, ‘Femicide Laws Are Failing: New Action Is Needed to Stop Girls and Women Being Killed’ (Research Insights No 3, School of Business and Management, Queen Mary University of London 2023) https://www.qmul.ac.uk/busman/research/research-insights/ accessed 23 August 2026.
[29] UN Women, ‘Femicide/Feminicide’ (UN Women) https://knowledge.unwomen.org/en/topics/ending-violence-against-women/femicide-feminicide accessed 23 August 2026.
[30] Gladwell Watiri and others, Economics Students Association of Kenya (KESA) Position Paper on Implementing a Stand-Alone Law for Femicide (8 June 2026) 8.
[31] Ibid.
[32] Legal Express Kenya, ‘Kenya’s Technical Working Group on GBV and the Fight Against Femicide’ (26 February 2026) [https://legalexpresskenya.com/2026/02/26/kenyas-technical-working-group-on-gbv-and-the-fight-against-femicide/](https://legalexpresskenya.com/2026/02/26/kenyas-technical-working-group-on-gbv-and-the-fight-against-femicide/) accessed 23 August 2026.
