A Mathare shopkeeper, who defiled an 11-year-old girl, has been imprisoned for life.
Makadara resident magistrate Jacky Kibosia had been told that Kelvin Okelo Ouma lured the girl to his house where he defiled her after hiding her pair of slippers and locking the door.
The offence was committed on October 28, 2016, when the girl was 11 years and 10 months old.
Ouma, who denied committing the offence, said the girl's mother had a grudge against him over items she had taken from his shop on credit.
“This evidence was not corroborated. The accused should have availed the credit book from the shop or any other document to prove that he was owed. Since the shop was his, this document was easily available,” Kibosia ruled.
Ouma had claimed that five people, including the child’s parents, beat him up before taking him to a police station.
He accused the police of demanding a Sh50,000 bribe to free him but he did not have the money.
The mother recalled that the child told her that she was experiencing a lot of pain when she returned home.
She rushed her to a hospital where the doctors found that she had been defiled.
Passing the sentence on Thursday, Kibosia noted that a report before the court showed that the victim is still traumatised and her performance in school had dropped.
"I hereby sentence you to life imprisonment,” she told Ouma and explained that her ruling was informed by the child's age as per her birth certificate.
She told the accused that he would have been sentenced to 20 years imprisonment if the victim was older than 12 years at the time of the offence.
The convict had objected, arguing that during the trial the mother had said the girl was 12 years old.
“I’m guided by the law. The offence was committed on October 28, 2016, and the birth certificate shows that she was born on December 23, 2004.”
In mitigation, a remorseful Ouma asked for leniency, saying he has a young family and that his wife had recently given birth.
He has 14 days to appeal.
