By Naomi Wanjiku
A post shared on X (formerly Twitter) claiming that President William Ruto has legalised prostitution in Kenya is FALSE.
The X user lauds President Ruto for legalising prostitution and encourages him to tap into the pornography industry to create employment opportunities for the jobless youth.
“Hello @WilliamsRuto Thank you for Legalizing prostitution. Now invest in the Kenyan porn industry it will create full-time employment to more than 300K youths,” part of the post reads.
The post also shares information about the profitability of the pornographic industry in the United States and asserts that Kenya could similarly benefit from it.
However, is it true that President Ruto has legalised prostitution in Kenya? We checked.
Currently, soliciting or profiting from prostitution is a felony under sections 153 and 154 of the Kenyan Penal Code Cap 63, carrying penalties of death or imprisonment for three years or more.
However, the proposed Penal Code (Amendment) Bill 2023, introduced by Chief Justice Martha Koome and appellate court judge Grace Ngenye on 19 October 2023, may lead to more lenient measures for individuals involved in prostitution if approved. While prostitution will remain illegal, alternatives to imprisonment, such as verbal sanctions, conditional discharge, probation, community service, and rehabilitation, could be implemented.
It is important to note that the Penal Code (Amendment) Bill 2023 has only passed the first reading in the National Assembly and has not yet received presidential approval, meaning it has not been officially enacted into law.
The post makes a second claim that the porn industry contributes $68 billion (KSh8 trillion) to the US economy. However, Statista, a global data and business intelligence platform, reports that the adult online content market in the United States was valued at $976.91 million in 2022 and is estimated to rise to $1.1 billion in 2023.
Additionally, the global adult online content market was valued at $44.8 billion in 2022, but Persistence Market Research suggests it may reach $201 billion by 2032. Therefore, the statement about the pornography industry in the US being valued at $68 billion is incorrect.
PesaCheck has looked into a post shared on X claiming that President William Ruto has legalised prostitution in Kenya and found it to be FALSE.
This fact check was published by Piga Firimbi with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck and African Fact-Checking Alliance.
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