Githunguri MP Gathoni Wamuchomba has urged Parliament to ban repeat sexual offenders from jobs involving children and other vulnerable people. She spoke in the National Assembly on Wednesday, November 4, during debate on the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill, 2025, Nairobi Wire reported.
Garissa Woman Representative Amina Udgoon Siyad sponsors the bill. It aims to strengthen the prosecution of sexual crimes and outlaw informal community settlements of such cases. Wamuchomba backed the bill. She urged Siyad to add blacklisting rules for repeat offenders as it moves forward.
"Repeat offenders must be blacklisted; they should not be allowed to drive school buses, they should not be allowed to be healthcare providers in hospitals, and they should not be allowed to even come close to any vulnerable member of society," Wamuchomba told the House.
She said positions of trust in schools, hospitals and religious institutions give repeat offenders openings when workplace screening fails. Unrestricted access, she said, lets convicts keep targeting vulnerable people in both the public and private sectors.
Wamuchomba said this is not her first attempt. She said that in the previous House she tried to bring an amendment to blacklist sexual offenders. It met a lot of pushback from "a certain section of the society", she said.
As Kiambu Woman Representative, she sponsored the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill, 2020. It proposed mandatory background checks for jobs involving childcare or vulnerable people. Employers who knowingly hired convicted offenders for such roles faced fines of up to KSh 1 million, up to three years in prison, or both.
Kenya already has a national register of convicted offenders. The Judiciary launched the Central Sexual Offenders Electronic Register in June 2023. It records convictions, guides policy and aims to improve public safety. Wamuchomba's proposals would go further, adding vetting before hiring and banning offenders from certain jobs.
Siyad's bill would insert a new Section 40A into the Act. It would void out-of-court deals, traditional reconciliations and financial settlements meant to resolve sexual assault cases outside the courts. The bill was first tabled in February 2026 and reached its second reading in September. Debate is ongoing.