Cop accused of defiling daughter 'flees to Tanzania'

Migori police have extended their search to Tanzania for their colleague accused of defiling his 12-year-old daughter.

On Thursday, police in Isebania heightened the pursuit OF the 42-year-old father who defiled the girl and thereafter had her locked up in a police cell for six days in an attempt to conceal the evidence.

Kuria West police chief Bernard Muriuki said they suspected the suspect who went underground after the incident might have crossed the border after the media exposed the story.

Muriuki said they had received confidential information on the suspect’s whereabouts and were laying an ambush to nab him.

“We have established his hideout following tip offs by locals and are narrowing down on him. We expect to have him arrested soonest so that justice can be meted on him," he said.

The OCPD however declined to comment further on action to be taken on police officers who reportedly helped their colleague to conceal the crime.

The Independent Police Oversight Authority (IPOA) said on Thursday they are investigating the incident.

"IPOA became aware of the matter and has since deployed its rapid response investigations team to Migori to investigate the matter. The team is on the ground undertaking independent investigations," the agency said in a short statement to the Star.

Officers from IPOA and the office of the Director of Public Prosecution camped at the police station to establish how the defilement victim was held for six days in a police station while the suspect constantly visited her.

The girl from Nyamosense-Komosoko ward told reporters she had visited her father last month to ask for school fees but he defiled her.

Muriuku said attempts to take the suspect to Kehancha law courts on November 5 and 19 failed for lack of evidence.

But he said he was not aware the victim was held at the Isebania police station or that the officers tampered with evidence.

The victim said her father, a police officer who was bodyguard to a senior politician in Migori county and is currently on disciplinary suspension from service, committed the crime on November 1  around 9am.

"I was sent home for Sh13,890 and since my parents don't live together, my grandmother whom I stay with sent me to collect fees from him," she narrated on Monday.

She was cleaning utensils when her father defiled her in the bedroom. She rushed to Nyabohanse police post to report the incident.

"I reported the incident to a female police officer who called my father and the area chief and tried to persuade me to forgive him," she said.

At about 2pm on that day she was transferred to Isebania police station where she was placed in a cell. Two hours later she was taken to Nyayo Hospital where she was tested and given medicine.

She stayed in police custody for six days, sleeping on the cold floor with adults, as police officers at the station allowed her father to constantly visit and threaten her to drop the case.

"When we visited her on the same evening she was arrested, the officer declined to release her saying the national flag at the station had already been lowered and we were not allowed to see her," her grandmother said.

Attempts by the grandmother and mother to have her released failed as the officers kept threatening or persuading them to drop the matter.

The girl is staying with a guardian named as Felista. 

"They placed the victim for six days to try and erase evidence and even police records and the Occurrence Book entries were skewed," Felista said.

On November 5, Martin Mwongera, senior prosecution counsel in the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, wrote OCS Isebania police station over tampering with evidence.

Mwongera said after perusing police files and statements "there is no sufficient evidence compiled thus far for us to charge the suspect with the proposed offence."

Nyamosense-Komosoko MCA Susan Mohabe said justice has to be served for the victim and the family "whose attempts to seek any justice have been met by constant threats, some coming from police officers"

Mohabe said Kuria West police officers are yet to arrest other suspects who gang-raped a 70-year-old woman a week ago.