The ruling was made by High Court Judge James Makau who said that the Sexual Offences Act does not mention cousins under the offence of incest which is sexual relations among relatives/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya Aug 20 – A Nairobi court ruling on sexual relations between cousins has left tongues wagging after it said the act is not illegal in Kenya.
The ruling was made by High Court Judge James Makau who said that the Sexual Offences Act does not mention cousins under the offence of incest which is sexual relations among relatives.
Capital FM News sought to get the opinion of people on what they thought of the ruling.
Daystar University’s Chaplain Jeremiah Obura said a lot of what is happening is out of influence from the western culture where they do all sorts of weird things and people copy for the sake of it.
He quoted the Bible the book of Leviticus Chapter 18 verse six which states: “No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations, I am the Lord. There is no debate on this issue. Based on the scriptures it is not right and it rules out.”
Obura explained that for the court to make the ruling, such things should be considered because it is wrong and may not be the best thing to educate our children.
“These days things have really changed we even find fathers sleeping with their own daughters something that the bible has forbidden, they should reconsider the whole issue again and consider what the scripture says,” he said.
A business man in Ngara James Mwangi said he could not understand how the court would come up with a decision like that and even the bible itself is so clear that it is wrong.
“This is something that is going to mislead the future generation giving them the idea that it is right to sleep with their own cousins,” he said.
Jacob Odhiambo a tout in one of the routes in Nairobi said that no matter how the judge tried to put it, it does not make sense for a cousin to sleep with another cousin as they are of the same blood. He explained that in their culture it is a taboo and even a curse to sleep with your relatives.
“It does not sound like a normal thing, what will your children think?”
A Doctor by the name Naomi James said it is not a good thing for it to be made legal because there are possibilities of children born out of parents who are cousins to have physical or mental abnormalities.
She explained that first cousins are two-times more likely to bear offspring with a birth defect than children born of couples who don’t share a common grandparents. If cousin couples happen to be carrying known genetic diseases, the risks faced by their offspring can jump.
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