»Æ¹ÏÊÓƵ

Domestic violence remains a persistent scourge in the lives of many Kenyans, with thousands of victims being reported yearly.^[1] Domestic violence is violence or the threat of violence against a person currently in or has been in a domestic relationship.^[2] Although domestic violence typically occurs between two or more adults, children can also be affected, either as direct victims or through indirect exposure.^[3] While the direct victims of domestic violence come out scathed and jaded, this paper contends that the lasting impact on children is equally profound. These children do not simply observe violence; they internalise it, carrying psychological trauma and behavioural patterns into adulthood. When these children later appear in Court as offenders in domestic violence cases, should their traumatic upbringing mitigate their sentence? Or, conversely, where they have undergone therapy or received substantial help and thus comprehend the consequences of domestic violence fully, should this be treated as an aggravating factor?