• Ochogo said he learnt of the assault over the radio and later at Rioma Police Station where his local chief took him.
• He said a beating he had given his younger sister Moraa may have prompted her to sell him out to authorities for an offence he did not commit.
Image: MAGATI OBEBO
Two of the three key suspects in the gory attack on baby Brighton Junior Sagini have denied causing bodily harm to the minor during hearing of the case on Friday.
Alex Ochogo and his mother, Pacifica Nyakerario, cited witch-hunt in their arrest and subsequent arraignment for the assault on Sagini, then aged three years.
They both denied all counts during cross examination when they appeared before Kisii Law Courts Senior Resident Magistrate Christine Ogweno.
Ochogo, who the first to be put on his defence, rebuffed the account of events given in court by his younger sister, Moraa Ochogo, that she saw him with a knife and sack at dusk before Sagini was attacked and his eyes gouged out.
Instead, Ochogo told the court he was enjoying drinks with friends in Kegogi, a short distance from home, where he worked at a construction site.
Sagini was found on December 13, 2022 in a maize farm with empty eye sockets after an unknown assailant waylaid him as he returned from the river and gouged out his eyes.
Ochogo said he learnt of the assault over the radio and later at Rioma Police Station where his local chief took him.
On the night of Sagini's assault, Ochogo said he had already spent several days away at the construction site and was putting up there with a few other workers.
He cited the run-ins with his chief as the reason he was fixed for the felony.
Ochogo denied being with a knife and sack as witnessed by his young sister, Moraa.
He said a beating he had given Moraa may have prompted her to sell him out to authorities for an offence he did not commit.
"It was all vindictive, it is because I had beaten her up for some mistake'" Ochogo told the Magistrate.
Ochogo was arrested alongside his mother, Pacifica Nyakerario, and his grandmother Rael Nyakerario.
Pacifica also denied assaulting the baby when she took to the dock.
She defended her visit to Nairobi where detectives picked her from saying she had already planned to travel prior to the incident.
She said her ailing daughter had sent for herbal concoction and a hen which she was to deliver for her medication.
"She had called me and asked that I take her an already slaughtered hen and ferry it as a parcel alongside the concoction. I, however, objected to carrying a dead hen, "she said.
Pacifica said she was not aware of the assault on Sagin until her arrest by detectives in Nairobi.
She defended her son for escorting her to Kisii town bus park on the material night Sagini was attacked saying she was new in the area and needed assistance.
The mother of ten said her visit to Nairobi was further necessitated by fears of some planned plot by her husband's brothers to kill her on suspicion that she had killed her husband.
"They had even bought petrol and wanted to burn me as we slept," she told the court.
Pacifica denied interacting with Sagini days to the incident.
She also denied interacting with her mother-in-law for as many as ten years.
She said the chief's account that she was involved in gouging Sagini's eyes was framed to fix her after pestering him to finish paying for a goat he had bought from her.
Ogweno ordered that more witnesses be allowed to testify when further hearing comes up. The case continues on May 5, 2023.