• The complainant would be sent to deliver milk to her teacher.
• Nzae defiled her and she got pregnant.
Image: FILE
A primary school teacher in Malindi will continue serving 25 years in jail for defiling and impregnating a Standard 5 pupil.
Kenneth Randu's push to have his sentence quashed was dismissed by the High Court in Malindi. He was charged with defiling a 15-year-old pupil in Magarini, Kilifi county. He pleaded not guilty and after a full trial, he was found guilty and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
The girl used to take milk to Nzae under instructions from her parents. One day, the teacher made sexual advances. He finally had sex with her. Thereafter, sex became a ritual as the teacher took advantage of her every time she delivered milk. It went on for weeks. He would caress her before making love, the court had heard.
"He would have me sit in his bedroom. He would then touch me, then remove all my clothes before defiling me," she said.
She was comfortable with the relationship until reality dawned on her that she had conceived. "I was fine with it until I missed my periods."
Her parents also became suspicious. She was taken to a hospital for a pregnancy test. The unthinkable had happened, the results showed. They then told her to reveal the identity of the person behind it.
"My parents noticed my condition and forced me to say who was responsible for it. That's when I disclosed."
Her father confirmed that he used to send her to take milk to Nzae. He later suspected that his daughter was pregnant because she behaved differently.
"I asked her mother to inquire and find out who impregnated the complainant. She revealed that Nzae was responsible. We sought assistance from the headmaster of the school, who, in turn, referred us to a police station," he said.
A police officer attached to Marereni station said he referred the complainant to Malindi Hospital where clinical officer Ibrahim Abdullahi examined her. It was confirmed that she was 20 weeks pregnant, with the time of conception estimated to be around March 2013. She also had a ruptured hymen.
But Nzae denied wrongdoing. He said he was made aware of the pregnancy by the pupil's father when he visited the school. He claimed that on different dates, especially at weekends between May and June 2013, he would be away in Nairobi. And in an attempt to prove that he had an alibi, he produced bus fare receipts.
In his defence, however, Nzau said the whole saga on sexual assault and pregnancy was fuelled by non-governmental organisations involved in child protection in Malindi subcounty. He called witnesses who said the girl was unsure of who the father of her unborn child was. The witnesses mentioned four men with whom the girl had allegedly had sex.
The defence asked for a DNA test to ascertain that Nzae was not responsible. But Justice Reuben Nyakundi said there was corroboration of the pupil's evidence, which, he added, sufficed in absence of the DNA test.
"The incident was put into perspective and the complainant's testimony by itself and the medical evidence proved the offence. The by-product of it was not necessarily part of the elements of the offence," Nyakundi said.
He added that Nzae being a person of authority, as a teacher in the girl's school, it was easy to understand why a romantic relationship could flourish and be maintained unabated.
In dismissing the appeal, he said, "The prosecution adduced credible and truthful testimony to prove the commission of a defilement beyond any reasonable doubt."
(Edited by F'Orieny)