The Sexual Offences (Medical Treatment) Regulations

Legal Notice 133 of 2012

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Legal Notice 133 of 2012
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Sexual Offences Act
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LAWS OF KENYA

SEXUAL OFFENCES ACT

THE SEXUAL OFFENCES (MEDICAL TREATMENT) REGULATIONS

LEGAL NOTICE 133 OF 2012

  • Published in Kenya Gazette Vol. CXIV—No. 115 on 23 November 2012
  • Commenced on 23 November 2012
  1. [Revised by 24th Annual Supplement (Legal Notice 221 of 2023) on 31 December 2022]

1. Citation

These Regulations may be cited as the Sexual Offences (Medical Treatment) Regulations.

2. Interpretation

In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires—“designated person” includes—(a)a nurse registered under section 12(1) or enrolled under section 14(1) of the Nurses and Midwives Act (Cap. 257); and(b)a clinical officer registered under section 7 of the Clinical Officers (Training, Registration and Licensing) Act (Cap. 253E);“medical practitioner” means a medical practitioner registered in accordance with section 6 of the Medical Practitioners and Dentist Act (Cap. 253);“medical treatment” includes counseling;“public hospital” means a Government health facility at all levels of health care, or such other health facility as may be designated, by notice in the Gazette, as a public hospital for the purpose of this Act.

3. Rights to medical treatment

(1)A victim, suspect, a person convicted or witness of a sexual offence has the right to medical treatment in a public hospital, private hospital or any other medical facility.
(2)The expenses incurred by a victim, a person who is suspected to have committed a sexual offence, a person convicted or witness of a sexual offence for medical treatment in a public hospital shall be borne by the Government.
(3)A victim of a sexual offence shall be entitled to receive medical treatment at any medical facility, whether they have or have not reported the matter to the police.
(4)The Cabinet Secretary may, at any time, enter into agreements with private hospitals or any other health facility to be designated as public hospitals for purposes of the Act.

4. Notification

A police officer who is on duty shall, who receives a report that a sexual offence has been committed against anyone, notify a medical practitioner or designated person at any health facility and refer the victim of the sexual offence to the medical practitioner or designated person at any health facility.

5. Medical examination

(1)A court may order the collection of the appropriate samples from any person who has been charged with a sexual offence, under the Act, at such place and subject to such conditions that the court may specify.
(2)Upon receiving an order made under paragraph (1), a police officer of any rank above the rank of police constable shall request any medical practitioner or designated person to take the appropriate samples from the person charged with a sexual offence.
(3)The medical practitioner or designated person shall determine the samples to take, the parts of the body from which the samples shall be taken from and the quantity that is reasonably necessary in accordance with the national guidelines for the management of sexual violence.

6. Receipt of Notification

(1)Upon receiving the notification given under regulation 4, the medical practitioner or designated person shall—
(a)conduct a full medical-forensic examination on the victim and prescribe the appropriate medical treatment; and
(b)provide appropriate professional counseling to the victims of the sexual offence;
(c)complete the prescribed Post Rape Care form and psychological assessment form as set out in the Schedule and any other relevant records;
(d)collect and preserve the necessary medical forensic samples in accordance with the national guidelines on management of sexual violence;
(e)inform and forward to the investigating officer or his or her representative, the samples collected, while maintaining a record of the chain of custody by appending his or her signature for the samples; and
(f)initiate appropriate referral to the relevant areas for subsequent areas for the necessary subsequent care.
(2)A medical practitioner or designated person shall also provide the medical treatment prescribed in paragraph (1)(a), (b), (d), (e) and (f) to a person who is suspected to have committed a sexual offence.
(3)The medical practitioner or designated person may, where they deem appropriate, conduct other examinations and treatment on the victim of sexual offence(s), witnesses or a person who is suspected to have committed a sexual offence.

SCHEDULE [r. 6(1)(c)]

POST RAPE CARE FORM

Part B - Mental Assessment Examination

Psychological assessment should be done by trained health care providers (Doctors, Nurses, Clinical Officers, Psychological Counselors, Social Workers, Psychiatrists who may be counselors recognized by accredited counseling associations or by the Ministry of Health as rape trauma counselors.• Past Medical history ........................................................• General appearance: Note appearance, gait, dress, grooming (neat or unkempt), posture, appear older or younger than stated age? .................................................................• Motor behavior: Level of activity: psychomotor agitation or psychomotor retardation, emotional appearance —anxious, tense, panicky, bewildered, sad, unhappy; voice-faint, loud, hoarse; eye contact. (Does the survivor maintain eye contact or not) ..............................................................• Attitude during interview: How survivor relates to examiner-irritable, aggressive, seductive, guarded, defensive, indifferent, apathetic, cooperative, sarcastic. ....................................................................................• Mood: (Steady or sustained emotional state)-gloomy, tense, hopeless, ecstatic, resentful, happy, bashful, sad, exultant, elated, euphoric, depressed, apathetic, anhedonic, fearful, suicidal, grandiose, nihilistic) ..............................................................• Affect (Feeling tone associated with idea)-labile, blunt, appropriate to content, inappropriate, flat.) ..............................................................• Speech: (Slow, fast, pressured, garrulous, spontaneous, taciturn, stammering, stuttering, slurring, staccato. Pitch, articulation, aphasia, coprolalia, echolalia, incoherent, logorrhea, mute, paucity, stilted.) ..............................................................• Perceptual disorders: (Hallucination),-olfactory, auditory, hap tic (tactile), gustatory, visual; (illusions);. hypnopompic or hypnogogic experiences; feeling of unreality, déjà vu, dejaentendu,) ..............................................................• Thought content: Delusions-/persecutory (paranoid), grandiose, infidelity, sensory, thought broadcasting, thought insertion, ideas of reference, ideas of unreality, phobias, obsessions, compulsions, ambivalence, autism, dereism, blocking suicidal or homicidal preoccupation, conflicts, nihilistic ideas, hypochondria sis, depersonalization, Derealization, flight of ideas, idée fixe, magical thinking, neologisms.) ..............................................................• Thought process: (Goal-directed ideas), loosened associations, illogical, tangential, relevant, circumstantial, rambling, ability to abstract, flight of ideas, perseveration.) ..............................................................• Sensorium: (Level of consciousness-alert, clear, confused, clouded, comatose, stupor-us; orientation to time, place person, cognition.) ..............................................................• Memory: (Remote memory (long-term memory); past several days, months, years.) ............................................• Recent memory (short term): recall or events in past day or two) ...............................................................• Immediate memory (very short-term memory): Lying down of immediate information with ability to quickly recall data.) ..............................................................• Concentration and calculation: ability to pay attention; distractibility; ability to do simple math). ............................................• Information and intelligence: (Use of vocabulary; level of education; fund of knowledge ...............................................................• Judgment: (Ability to understand relations between facts and to draw conclusions; responses in social situations.) ..............................................................• Insight level: (Realizing that there are physical or mental problems; denial of illness, ascribing blame to outside factors; recognizing need for treatment) ..............................................................NB: Inquire if possible about if there has been any abuse or if this is first episode FOR A CHILDEvaluate behavior, mood and speech as above but use the following to evaluate thought:• Drawing — allow child to comment on the drawing and report verbatim.• Play — by use of toys ; allow child to comment on the drawing and report verbatim• Assess the unconscious world of the child by: ..............................................................o Asking about feelings e.g. ask the child to report the feeling that he/she commonly experiences and ask what makes him/her feel that wayo Wishes• Take full History including Past medical history and full physical examination as indicatedConclusion..................................................................
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31 December 2022 this version
23 November 2012
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1. Medical Practitioners and Dentists Act 64 citations
2. Nurses and Midwives Act 17 citations

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