When justice disappears: How corruption is silencing defilement survivors
A 13-year-old girl from Busia was defiled by the son of an army officer. Her father, determined to get justice, reported the case. However, the suspect’s family offered him Sh200,000 to drop the case. He refused. Soon, exhibits and the case file disappeared.
What you need to know:
- Corruption within police and courts is undermining justice, leaving defilement survivors intimidated, silenced, and abandoned.
- Survivors of sexual violence face bribery, threats, and missing evidence as justice systems collapse under corruption.
Powerful perpetrators exploit corrupt institutions, denying survivors justice and exposing deep flaws in Kenya’s accountability systems.
In 2019, a father in Busia County began a fight he believed the system would help him win. His 13-year-old daughter had been defiled by the son of an army officer.
Determined to seek justice, he reported the case and followed it through the system. But what followed was not accountability; it was a slow unravelling of hope. The suspect’s family offered him Sh200,000 to drop the case. He refused.
Soon after, the case began to collapse in ways he could not explain. Critical evidence: the bedsheet and clothes his daughter had worn during the violation disappeared from the exhibits store, as did the case file. Witnesses who had initially agreed to testify abruptly withdrew. His pursuit of justice turned into a lesson in how corruption works.
His story echoes accounts captured in the Kenya National Gender and Corruption Survey, 2025, by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), which reveals how corruption intersects with gender-based violence to deny survivors justice.
“I intervened in a horrific case. A 13-year-old girl was defiled by three people: her biological father, a friend of the father who was once a Traffic police officer, and another person connected to a senior police officer…” the report quotes a participant in a focus group discussion in Nyeri.
“When I reported the case, I was warned off, pressured, and told to drop the matter. Only the biological father was arrested; the others were shielded. That is how corruption silences people.”
These accounts point to a disturbing pattern: perpetrators with connections or resources manipulate the justice system, while survivors and their families are left to navigate intimidation, missing evidence, and institutional indifference.
According to the survey, while corruption is widely recognised for its economic toll: increasing poverty (21 per cent), hampering economic growth (16.8 per cent), and driving up the cost of living (13.6 per cent), its role in denying justice remains under-acknowledged, cited by four per cent of respondents.
Yet, in cases of sexual violence, that four per cent represents lives profoundly altered. The institutions meant to deliver justice are also those most tainted by corruption.
Justice denied
The police were ranked highest, with 66.7 per cent of respondents perceiving corruption to occur frequently within the service. They were followed by county assemblies (43.1 per cent), the National Assembly (41.4 per cent), the law courts (35 per cent), the Senate (32.6 per cent), the lands registry (31.7 per cent), and the National Transport and Safety Authority (30.2 per cent).
For survivors of defilement and rape, these are not abstract statistics, they are the gatekeepers of justice. The findings have prompted calls for urgent reforms. Among the recommendations is the launch of targeted anti-corruption operations in high-risk sectors, including police services, civil registration, NTSA, and land registries.
EACC chief executive officer Abdi Mohamud said the commission is moving to act decisively. “We will immediately deploy undercover integrity testing and enhanced monitoring in high bribery sectors,” he said on April 9, 2026, during the launch of the report at Safari Park Hotel, Nairobi County.
“We have set clear targets, which is to reduce bribery prevalence in these identified areas by at least 20 per cent within the next six months.”
He added that underreporting remains one of the greatest obstacles in tackling corruption. “As highlighted in the survey report, one of the greatest challenges remains the low rate of reporting,” he said.
“Only a small fraction of those who encountered corruption actually reported, often due to a lack of secure channels or fear of intimidation and retaliation. We must bridge this gap by establishing confidential digital reporting platforms that protect whistleblowers.”
