Kenyan judge bags 'prize’ for worst ruling in the world

A Kenyan judge who freed a man convicted of defiling a minor has earned an international award as the world’s worst court decision for women’s rights in the past year.

On April 25, 2016, Justice Said Juma Chitembwe of Malindi High Court in Kenya, set aside a 20-year jail sentence that a magistrate court had handed to Martin Charo, 24, after convicting him of defiling a 13-year-old girl between December 2011 and January 2012 in Kilifi County.

According to Chitembwe in his ruling, he said: 'Although an underage girl cannot consent to sexual intercourse, the evidence before the court showed that she presented herself as “mature enough to have sex”. “She took herself as an old girl who could stand a man,” the judge said.

The ruling was awarded at the Golden Bludgeon in Spain on Wednesday by Women’s Link Worldwide, beating 18 other cases to emerge the world’s worst ruling for women’s rights in 2016.

Although, the State has since appealed against the ruling.

Golden Bludgeon Award, is a yearly event that recognizes the best and worst court rulings on gender equality from all over the world.