• The teacher lured orphaned pupils to his house, pretending that he would assist them get sponsors.
• Moby Odayo will spend 45 years in prison after Justice Jessie Lesiit enanced the sentence from 15 years.
A retired primary school teacher is regretting his decision to appeal a 15-year jail term for defilement as it has been enhanced to 45 years.
Moby Odayo had been convicted of defiling three orphaned pupils in Mathare between March and June 2010.
Odayo appealed only for Justice Jessie Lessit to quash the 15-year sentence and substitute it with 45 years.
The judge set aside the trial magistrate's ruling that each of the three sentences run concurrently instead of consecutively.
"The sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment on each of the counts - 1, 3 and 4 - should run consecutively,” Lessit said.
Odayo defiled the girls of a Mathare school where he was a teacher.
The teacher lured orphaned pupils to his house, pretending that he would assist them get sponsors. He used either threats or promises to buy their silence after defiling them.
The trial court had been told that the accused, on March 17, 2010, at Mathare Area One, left the school with a 14-year-old orphan.
He had earlier told her to carry an extra dress under the school uniform as he would take her to a sponsor. He, however, took her to a house allegedly belonging to his brother.
“After a long wait, she suggested that she goes back to school and return later only to realise that the door was locked,” a statement presented in court said.
He is said to have then grabbed her, taken her to bed and stuffed her mouth with pieces of cloth before defiling her.
He warned her against telling anybody what happened. The defilement resulted in pregnancy, which she aborted to continue with her studies.
Months later, she disclosed her ordeal to a female teacher.
On June 11, 2010, Odayo asked two other girls not to come for remedial classes in uniform the next day.
The following day, he lured the girls to his house, promising to introduce them to an organisation that helps orphans.
The teacher’s son was in the house. Odayo sent him and one of the girls to the shop. In their absence, he defiled the 14-year-old until he was interrupted by a knock on the door 30 minutes later.
The defiler warned the victim not to tell anybody what happened or else he would stab her with a knife. He promised her new shoes for her silence.
He released the two girls at 7pm and told them to lie to anybody who questioned where they had been that they had been at African Christ Organisation.
Another victim was new in the area and had sought his help to find her way to school from a sports event at Moi Forces Academy.
“The man who taught her Mathematics and English instead took her to his house which he claimed was his brother’s and defiled her after stuffing her mouth with a sponge. He threatened to stab her with a knife when she attempted to scream,” the statement in court said.
Odayo's criminal activities were brought to the attention of the school headteacher by a parent who complained that children were arriving home from school late.
The convict, who had retired and moved to Busia, was arrested and brought to Muthaiga police station from where he was taken to court.
Justice Lessit delivered the ruling via Skype on June 8.
- mwaniki fm