A landmark legal overhaul in England and Wales will soon protect rape survivors from being depicted as 'serial liars' in the courtroom, a significant move announced by UK Justice Secretary David Lammy. This development across continents is forcing a hard look at the protections, or lack thereof, afforded to survivors navigating Kenya's complex and often gruelling judicial process.

The core of the UK reform is to stop the "profound injustice" of defence barristers using a survivor's past reports of sexual assault to discredit their testimony. For countless Kenyan women, this tactic is painfully familiar, turning a quest for justice into a trial of their own character and past, a reality local activists have long condemned.

A Mirror to Our Own Courts

While Kenya's Sexual Offences Act of 2006 provides a legal framework, survivors frequently face insurmountable obstacles. The journey from reporting a crime to securing a conviction is fraught with delays, stigma, and procedural bottlenecks that often lead survivors to abandon their cases altogether. This mirrors the crisis in the UK, where officials noted that too many victims withdraw from the process due to traumatic court experiences.

The UK government has backed its legal reforms with a substantial commitment of £550 million (approx. KES 94 billion) for victim support services. This funding aims to provide measures like courtroom screens and companions for victims—support systems that are not consistently available or funded within the Kenyan context.

The Fight for Fairer Trials

The new British legislation, expected before parliament next year, will make it harder to introduce a victim's sexual history as 'bad character' evidence unless there is proof of dishonesty. It also makes it easier to introduce a defendant's history of domestic abuse, even against a different victim, as relevant evidence. In Kenya, while progress has been made, including the establishment of specialised SGBV courts, challenges persist.

Key provisions of the UK's legal shake-up include:

• Banning the questioning of victims about past rape reports to prevent the 'serial liar' trope.
• Restricting the use of a victim's sexual history as 'bad character' evidence.
• Making a defendant's history of domestic abuse more easily admissible in court.
• Formalising special measures like courtroom screens and pre-recorded evidence to reduce trauma for survivors.

Kenyan activists have consistently called for a more trauma-informed justice system. They argue that without stronger protections and more efficient court processes, survivors are silenced by fear and a slow-moving system, undermining accountability for perpetrators. The slow pace of justice remains a significant barrier, a problem the UK is also trying to tackle by scrapping jury trials for less severe cases to clear a massive backlog.

As Chief Justice Martha Koome has noted, SGBV is a grave violation of human rights with devastating impacts. The reforms in the UK, born from a similar recognition, offer a potential blueprint. The question now is whether Kenya's justice system will be inspired to reinforce its own shield for the vulnerable, ensuring that seeking justice does not become a second assault.