This archive report was first published on 9 August 2019.
On Thursday, two rugby players were found guilty of gang-raping a woman in a Nairobi court. The sentencing, initially set for today, has been moved to next Friday.
The convicts, Alex Mahaga Olaba and Lawrence Frank Wanyama, were university students at the time of the incident. They were 22 and 23 years old, respectively, while the complainant was 24.
Defence lawyer Jimmy Simiyu argued that his clients were remorseful and asked the magistrate to hand them non-custodial sentences. He claimed that the complainant was older than the accused in terms of mental capacity.
However, the prosecution argued that the Sexual Offences Act provides for strict liability of offenders, with a mandatory sentence of 15 years to life. If the court goes below this, it would be going against the statutes of the law, a prosecutor said.
The accused persons will remain in custody until the date of their sentencing.
