dc.description.abstract | Globally, 120 million adolescent girls experience sexual violence and become pregnant annually. In Kenya, National Survey Report of 2019 revealed that 33.7% of females compared to 5.6% of males ages 13-17 experienced forced sexual intercourse 12 months prior to the study. Despite the fact that more than half of 13–17-year-old females (56.7%) who experienced incident of defilement disclosed to adult family members or relatives, only 9.8% sought help, with few cases reported to the police. Homa Bay County is among other counties with highest prevalence of teenage pregnancy (33%), confirming high rate of defilement. Within the county, Ndhiwa Sub-County is leading with teenage pregnancy and defilement cases, with Kanyamwa Kosewe Ward worst affected, yet the perpetrators are hardly reported to the police. However, it is unknown whether this inaction is because the community lacks knowledge on their role in seeking justice for victims or it is due to perceptions about criminal justice system (police or courts) in handling cases of defilement of female adolescents. It is also not clear whether there could be cultural factors, which hinder the community from seeking justice for the female adolescent victims. Therefore, this study, specifically, sought to (1) assess the level of awareness of the community members about their role in seeking justice for defiled adolescent girls in Kanyamwa Kosewe Ward, (2) find out how the community perceives criminal justice system in handling of defilement of adolescent girls in Kanyamwa Kosewe Ward, (3) investigate how cultural factors influence justice seeking for defilement of adolescent girls in Kanyamwa Kosewe Ward. The study was guided by Social-Ecological Model by Bronfenbrenner (1989). The study adopted a cross-sectional survey research design, combining both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The target population included community members aged 18 years and above. Out of this population, Yamane (1967) formula was used to obtain a sample of 204 study participants. The sample was then proportionately distributed in two sub-locations which were randomly selected from Kanyamwa Kosewe Ward. The respondents were selected through simple random method from list of household heads. Key informants such as chiefs, assistant chiefs, nyumba kumi members, teachers, the police, children’s officer, and civil society organization (CSO) officials were purposively selected and interviewed to saturation. Primary data was collected using semi-structured questionnaires administered to the randomly selected community members, while qualitative data was collected through four focus group discussions with community members and Key informant interviews. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and presented in table of frequencies and percentages while qualitative data was analyzed using thematic analysis. The study showed that the community had high level of awareness of their role in seeking justice for defiled adolescent girls. The highest source of awareness was vernacular radio stations and children’s department. However, the study found that the community had negative perceptions about the criminal justice system, including viewing them as being corrupt, nagging, ineffective as many cases over-delay in the court. The study also noted cultural factors hindering justice seeking, including protection of perpetrators who happen to be close relatives, fear of “blocking the girl’s future”, threats of suicide by the girls themselves, sexual affairs among adolescents regarded as normal by the community and lastly, fear of being labelled as an evil person, a witch. The study recommends strengthening of community policing to eliminate negative perceptions about criminal justice systems. It also recommends that a lot sensitization needs to be carried out through vernacular radio stations and other channels to demystify some of the cultural factors hindering justice seeking for defiled adolescent girls | en_US |