Woman, 40, raped, murdered in Kakamega.

A 40-year-old woman has been found dead at Shinyalu in Kakamega County and initial Police investigations indicate the woman was first raped before being hacked to death.

Confirming the incident, area OCPD Joseph Chebii said a 6-year-old child belonging to the woman was also injured during the attack.

Chebii said that three suspects have been arrested in connection to the incident and will be arraigned in court soon.

Last month, in the same county, an 8-year-old girl was allegedly raped and murdered by her 21-year-old uncle in Butere and her body found buried in a sugarcane plantation.

Such cases have been on the rise the country with statistics on rape in Kenya showing that the vice has reached alarming proportions.

Studies conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics in Kenya between December 2007 and June 2014 show that with the population of approximately 40 million, a shocking 40,500 women are raped every year in the country.

This figure of the rape cases in Kenya though high is conservative in the sense that only one out of every 20 women report rape cases in Kenya and only one out of six seek medical assistance in Kenya.

Rape cases in Kenya could be three times the reported figure because many victims don’t report rape incidents to relevant authorities.

The central bureau report has also unveiled that rape cases in most provinces are mostly settled out of court through clan elders.

Women and children in rural areas are not only subjected to these “courts” unwillingly, but are often denied treatment for deadly STD’s including HIV.

Rape offences leave a very bad taste in the mouths of the victims and of their close relatives.

Some victims, unless properly counseled, they may be left with permanent emotional scars, which may affect not only how they relate with members of the opposite sex but also how they may react to ordinary life circumstances.

The Kenyan Constitution provides a jail term of seven years to a person proven guilty of rape.