The new Constitution adopted this month (August) in Kenya protects every person from corporal punishment, making Kenya the second African state this year to legally protect children from all corporal punishment in all settings, including the home.

Article 29 of the Constitution states that every person “has the right to freedom and security of the person, which includes the right not to be ...

• subjected to any form of violence from either public or private sources;
  
• subjected to torture in any manner, whether physical or psychological;
  
• subjected to corporal punishment; or
  
• treated or punished in a cruel, inhuman or degrading manner”.

Article 20(1) states: “The Bill of Rights applies to all law and binds all State organs and all persons.” And article 53 confirms that every child has the right “to be protected from abuse, neglect, harmful cultural practices, all forms of violence, inhuman treatment and punishment, and hazardous or exploitative labour”.

The effect of the prohibition in the new Constitution is immediate...