A Makadara court has found a Machakos man guilty of rape after he forcibly sodomised his wife.
The man was accused of committing the offence on May, 7, 2015, in Athi River, Machakos county.
The court heard that he sodomised his wife against her will. The man was also charged with an alternative count of committing an indecent act.
In a ruling delivered on December 22, Makadara chief magistrate Heston Nyaga said that having considered the evidence on record, he was satisfied that the prosecution had proved its case to the requisite standard of law.
“This is a case where I have carefully analysed the conduct of the victim after the incident. It is clear that she felt wronged by someone," he ruled.
"As I stated earlier in this ruling, concluding that a rape had occurred in a marriage or relationship is quite difficult. Its resolution lies with the examination of the events before and after the alleged incident.”
Nyaga ordered that the accused be remanded at Kamiti Maximum Prison as he awaits his sentencing on January 11.
The woman told the court the accused was violent and had persistently asked for anal sex, which she was not comfortable with.
She said that on May 7, 2015, the man went to her home, locked the door, and they had normal consensual sex. He then wanted to have anal sex, but she declined.
She said the accused then hit her several times and threatened to cut her throat with a surgical blade if she refused to cooperate. She screamed for help but no one came to her aid.
The accused then tied her to the bed and sodomised her. He then ordered the woman to take a shower. The man spent the night in the sitting room.
The woman reported the matter to Sabaki police station and the case was transferred to Athi River police station.
She was taken to a clinic in Athi River and upon examination the results did not indicate any evidence of sexual assault. The prosecution witness who examined the woman was known to the accused.
The complainant was not satisfied with the results, and she visited Nairobi Women's Hospital in Kitengela. She was examined and was found with fresh bruises in the anal area.
The defence, however, raised questions over the two conflicting medical reports, and they faulted the investigating officer for choosing to charge him based on the second report.
But Nyaga ruled that the complainant’s testimony was credible.
“The clinical officer who examined the complainant at Nairobi Women's Hospital did not know either party, unlike the first test where the accused was known to the clinical officer at Athi River. I found no good reason to dismiss the result from Nairobi Women's Hospital,” he ruled.
The case was initially heard in Mavoko law courts before the accused applied to have the matter transferred to a court in another jurisdiction, citing his 'lack of faith' in the courts in Mavoko.
The High Court in Machakos then directed that the matter be transferred to Makadara law courts.
