Abstract:
Addressing the plight of sexual assault victims and survivors remains a daunting challenge for the criminal justice system. In Kenya, it is estimated that only a quarter of sexual offense cases presented in court lead to successful convictions. This issue arises at every stage, from apprehending offenders to gathering and analyzing forensic evidence. Actual evidence to be collected is contingent upon the capacity to analyse, preserve, and use it. The primary focus of this study was to assess the influence of functional sexual offenses’ analysis infrastructure on the outcome of sexual offenses’ forensic investigation in Butere sub-county of Kakamega County, Kenya. The study explored technical expertise, forensic laboratory and Standard Sexual assault examination kit. The significance of the study is to give insight into the successful investigation of sexual offenses and guide policy formulation regarding investigation of sexual offenses. The study adopted a descriptive survey design to provide an explanation of the variables and an explanatory research design to explain causal links between variables. Stratified random sampling was used to select police respondents from police stations and police posts from Butere Sub County and snowball and purposive sampling was used to select survivors of sexual assault offences within Butere sub county and health workers from level 4 hospitals in Butere Sub County respectively. Data was collected using closed and open-ended questionnaires administered to police officers, interview guides administered to healthcare workers and survivors of sexual assault offenses. Data was subjected to thorough editing and summarized before analysis. Qualitative data was analysed thematically with the help of NVivo software while Quantitative data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24 and results presented using tables. There was inadequate sexual assault investigating infrastructure within the Sub-County lacking a single functional laboratory (composite mean=2.70). Results also showed that sexual examination kit was only available in district hospitals and notably, knowledge of its utilization was low. The coefficient of correlation was found to be (R= 0.701) and coefficient of determination was (R2 = 0.491). There is need for periodical training to law enforcement agencies and health workers on sexual evidence and construction of an operational fully equipped forensic laboratory within Kakamega County.
