Mungiki rapist's death sentence reduced to 17 years

A Mungiki rapist who threatened to drink his victim’s blood and chop off her head has had his sentence reduced from death to 17 years.

Peter Njau Kamau was sentenced to death in June 2011 after he was convicted of raping Mary (not her real name) and stealing her mobile phone, watch and cash.

During the trial, Mary told the court that she was walking from church in Kiambu county to attend a chama at her friend’s home on the afternoon of August 5, 2007.

She was on a deserted path when she noticed a man running towards her. The man was a stranger to her. Unconcerned, she kept walking.

“The man caught up with me, grabbed me by the throat while brandishing a knife and pulled me inside a forest. For the next two hours, he proceeded to terrorise me,” Mary said.

She said Kamau robbed her of her mobile phone, her watch and Sh325.

“I realised that his mission not complete when he told me that he was thirsty for human blood and planned to drain from it from me. He said he would rape me, drink my blood and afterwards chop off my head,” Mary narrated.

She said he ignored her pleas as he struggled to undress her. For her resistance, she said, he slashed her right wrist but that did not stop her.

“I fell down and he overpowered me,” she said.

Mary said Kamau used her phone to call someone with whom he spoke in language unfamiliar to her.

He then led her deeper into the forest and told her he was Mungiki. She said he then forced her to undress.

Undeterred, he led her deeper into the forest, revealing as they walked, that he was a member of Mungiki and then forced her to undress a second time.

“He raped me repeatedly and when he was done, he began interrogating me,” she recounted. “The friend I was going to visit called my phone, which was in his possession. Kamau ordered me to tell her my last words but I was too scared to speak.”

Eventually he switched off the phone, pocketed it, and continued with his questions. 

EVIDENCE

Mary said her rapist then walked a distance off to make another call. When he returned, Kamau ordered her to dress and walk back the way they had come.

“With my blouse inside out, I walked quickly before taking off to the main road where I sought help,” she said.

Good Samaritans took her to hospital for first aid and there she was met by her father and a neighbour. They reported the attack to Kikuyu police station.

“The police referred me to Nairobi Women’s Hospital, where I was also examined and treated,” she said.

Mary took the results back to the police and told them though her attacker was a stranger, she would be able to identify him if she saw him again. The police advised her to be on the lookout for him and report any sighting.

When she spotted him she immediately informed officers at an AP post. Two officers accompanied her and arrested Kamau. A search of his house yielded nothing but he was handed over to Kikuyu police station.

Kamau was charged with one count of robbery with violence and a second count of rape.

He was convicted of both offences and sentenced to 10 years for rape and to death for robbery with violence.

He appealed to the High Court against the conviction and sentences. The High Court concluded that the evidence showed Mary had indeed been assaulted and raped.

The court was confident in relying on Mary’s uncorroborated identification evidence as the attack happened during the day and she had ample time to recognise her attacker.

Based on the evidence, the court found no reason to interfere with the convictions entered on both counts and dismissed the appeal. It however suspended the rape sentence as the appellant had already been sentenced to death on account of the first count.

Kamau then moved to the Court of Appeal, where judges Martha Koome, Hannah Okwengu and Fatuma Sichale reduced the death sentence to 25 years from the date of conviction, which was June 22, 2011.

Edited by Josephine M. Mayuya