This archive report was first published on 30 June 2020.
On June 30, 2020, a High Court in Kenya ordered a retrial for two rugby players, Alex Olaba and Frank Wanyama, who were sentenced to 15 years in prison for gang-raping a musician in 2018.
The two players, 23-year-old Olaba and 22-year-old Wanyama, were convicted of the crime by Chief Magistrate Martha Mutuku in August 2019.
According to the court, the two players gang-raped a musician on February 10, 2018, at a house party in Nyayo High Rise buildings.
Section 10 of the Sexual Offences Act of 2006 states that any person found guilty of gang-rape is liable upon conviction to imprisonment for a term of not less than 15 years.
However, High Court Judge Grace Ngenye Macharia directed a repeat trial for the two players after they successfully appealed, citing that one of the witnesses gave unsworn evidence, making the whole trial a nullity.
Olaba and Wanyama had pleaded for a non-custodial sentence, claiming they were drunk and the victim had elected to spend the night at the apartment because she was also drunk and later tried to extort money from them.
The two players have represented the national seven-a-side team, Shujaa, and have been in jail since August last year when they were sentenced.
