Understanding global variations in age of consent laws

Young African American couple relaxing. [Courtesy]

We expect a girl or boy growing up in Mwingi, Kitui County, to enjoy the same legal protection as one growing up in Kawangware and Runda in Nairobi. One way the law provides this uniform protection is through age of consent legislation drawing authority from various provisions of the Constitution, including Article 27, which decrees all are equal and are entitled to equal protection by law.

If this uniform protection is not the case, there is a disparity within the borders of the country that needs to be accounted for in legal thought. The laws of a nation ought to have uniformity and uniform effect among citizens, and courts in one location ought to give more or less the same judgment to a...