Boy, 10, sodomised by father in Lamu gets justice

Innocent (not his real name) only trusts one person in the whole world at the moment, thanks to his 50-year-old monster of a father.

The 10-year-old boy can only freely talk to and play with his younger sister, Hope (not her real name), who, at eight years old, does not even understand how the world is.

But, at least, she has been by her elder brother’s side, giving him hope that there remain sane people in this broken world.

Now in Mombasa courtesy of Muslims for Human Rights, Innocent does not want to hear anything to do with Lamu, where he lived in Mokowe in a house that he experienced the nadir of his young life.

“It will take a long time for him to become his normal self again,” said Muhuri communication, monitoring and evaluation officer Ernest Cornel.

Innocent was betrayed by his own father, Monsterio (not his real).

His mother left Kenya for domestic work in Dubai about two years ago.

One evening in Lamu, his father called him into the house after the day’s work.

Exhausted and hungry, Monsterio asked Innocent to massage his shoulders, his small fingers notwithstanding.

Innocent got to work, doing his best for the man he could trust with his life.

Then the soothing words came.

Monsterio told Innocent how he loved him as a son, how he liked his discipline and how he took after him when he was his age.

Then the groping started. It was at this point that Innocent began feeling uncomfortable.

The man he trusted was groping his tiny private parts.

“I kept quiet because he told me it was okay and that he was only trying to see whether I have any abnormal things in the body,” Innocent recalled.

Monsterio went ahead and defiled his own flesh and blood. The 10-year-old’s innocent pleas for mercy – thinking he was being punished for a wrong he did not know – fell on deaf ears.

“Then he told me not to tell anyone or I would die,” Innocent said, his voice hoarse and broken.

This was the first time. It would happen at least twice more.

Innocent’s grandfather Malis (not his real name) said the second time Monsterio locked Innocent in a room and threatened to kill him if he resisted.

“The boy was full of fear and had to accept so as to save his life,” Malis said.

Mohammed Skanda, a paralegal officer trained by Muhuri under the Programme for Legal Empowerment and Aid Delivery in Kenya, said Innocent could not take it anymore the third time.

PLEAD, funded by the European Union through the United Nations Development Program, is enhancing access to justice especially for the poor and vulnerable in Lamu.

“These houses have no toilets inside. You have to come out of the house and go to the bush. The boy asked his father to allow him to go to the toilet. He never went back to that house and it was night time,” Skanda said.

The Muhuri field officer said at around 5am, neighbours who were walking home from the mosque after morning prayers saw Innocent coiled in an abandoned house.

“They interrogated him but he at first refused to say what had happened. But after much persuasion he opened up,” Skanda said.

After the revelation, the neighbours reported the matter to the police and the man was sought and arrested before being charged.

The paedophile pleaded guilty at the Lamu law courts and was sentenced to 20 years in jail by Justice Allan Temba on July 15.

“I am very mad. We wanted to discipline the man ourselves but we thought better and let the matter be dealt with by the authorities,” said Malis.

Eunice Bada, Innocent’s teacher at school, said he was a bright and active boy but changed all of a sudden and became an introvert.

“When we heard what happened, we were very disappointed,” said Bada, who was one of those involved in Innocent’s rescue.

She said Lamu lacks a rescue centre for such children and victims of sexual gender-based violence.

“Someone like Innocent needs a lot of things like toys to play with so as to forget the trauma he underwent. But we lack those things, making the recovery process slow and long,” said Bada.

She pointed an accusing finger at the police, saying they drag their feet when such cases come to them.

Cornel said Muhuri last Wednesday trained eight women MCAs in Lamu on sexual gender-based violence.

The MCAs said this year alone, over 200 cases of teenage pregnancies have been reported in Lamu.

About four of the cases involved biological fathers and their biological daughters.

“The training was to find out how to approach these cases,” said Cornel, who is also a certified professional mediator.

Edited by Henry Makori