Challenges in Litigating under Kenya’s Protection from Domestic Violence Act 2015

Abstract

The Protection against Domestic Violence Act (2015) was enacted to specifically cater for the needs of the victims of domestic violence. It addresses all forms of domestic relationships and places the duty to ensure the protection of victims on the government. However, the law is practically ineffective in its daily applicability to victims of domestic violence. Some of the shortcomings of this Act are in the wording while others are in its conflicts with the prevailing procedural and constitutional realities in daily practice. This paper looks at some of these challenges from the point of view of a legal practitioner who has tried to use it in Kenya’s Magistrates’ Courts.