Why Eric Omondi’s Video With Nude Minors Should be Taken Down.

The Internet has been abuzz  today with a video shared on twitter showing Eric Omondi totally nude in the company of other naked children enjoying a swim in a river. I took offence with the said stunt for the reason that children are very naïve, and promoting any X-rated material belonging to them is a crime as they have not reached the age where they can issue consent for the sharing of their explicit  images.
The definition of a child under the Kenyan Children’s Act No. 8 of 2001 remains as anyone who is under the age of 18 and provides protection from sexual exploitation, including prostitution and pornography in line with UN International Conventions. In essence, Kenya maintains 18 years as the age of consent for both sexual activity and sexually explicit images. An attempt at reviewing this to 16 was recently thwarted by Parliament.
Kenya has a comprehensive law on children (the Children’s Act of 2001) and a Sexual Offences Act 2006 that protects children from sexual exploitation. Anyone under the age of 18 is regarded as a child as per the Children’s Act. The Kenyan law on pornography is codified and applies without distinction both to minors and adults.
The Sexual Offences and Act No. 3 of 2006 at Section 16 (1)(a) criminalizes the possession any obscene book, pamphlet, paper, drawing, painting, art, representation or figure or any other obscene object whatsoever which depict the image of any child.
The greatest challenge however is the law enforcement bodies are inadequately equipped and lack the necessary human and financial resources to discharge their responsibilities. Consequently, many offences in this context may not be properly investigated, prosecuted or followed up. Furthermore, the age of consent to sexual activity varies from country to country, a challenging obstacle to the harmonization protection of children from sexual exploitation on the international level.
Though one may argue that consensual sexual decisions should be respected and the protection of human dignity and the right to privacy against any infringement to the best interests of the child, the society has identified it to be immoral for minors to participate in sexual activities and they are therefore incapable of giving consent as provided by the law.
In the foregoing, it is needful to observe that minors must be protected from all harmful acts that may damage their normal growth. Combating indecent images of children on the internet is a matter of compelling interest for States. It is my view that the relevant authorities will act and take the necessary action on the individual who recorded and shared the video.