Kenya dispatch: High Court strikes down law criminalizing consensual sex among teenagers

Kenya dispatch: High Court strikes down law criminalizing consensual sex among teenagers

On May 20, 2026, Nairobi’s Milimani High Court issued a landmark ruling in Petition E490/2025 that fundamentally reshapes how Kenyan law treats consensual sex among minors. In a judgment delivered by Justice Bahati Mwamuye, the court held that applying Sections 8, 9, and 11 of the Sexual Offences Act (SOA) to teenagers in consensual, close-in-age relationships “violates multiple constitutional rights.” The petition was brought by three anonymize…