This archive report was first published on 8 August 2019.
On August 9, 2019, a Kenyan court delivered a guilty verdict to two rugby players, Alex Olaba and Frank Wanyama, who were accused of gang rape.
The ruling was made by Milimani Law Court Chief Magistrate Martha Mutuku, who had previously postponed the case twice due to Olaba's absence.
The two athletes, who play for Kenya Harlequins and the Kenya Sevens team, were charged with raping a woman on her birthday in February 2018 at her apartment in Nairobi's Highrise Estate.
The accuser, an upcoming artist named Wendy Kemunto, claimed that she became pregnant after the ordeal and that one of the rugby players had threatened to sue if she went public.
Olaba and Wanyama denied the allegations, stating that they knew the accuser and were together on the day she claims she was sexually assaulted.
The rape allegations emerged on March 31, 2018, after the artist accused the two on her Instagram page of taking advantage of her and engaging in a forced threesome.
