The norm is to respect and protect people in their sun set years. But AM suffered a devastating experience at 80 years.
At about 10pm on December 6, 2010, she was rudely woken from her sleep and raped by a young man who was her neighbour in Kisii.
James Mirieri Akunga easily overpowered the old woman and sexually violated her for about two hours. The ordeal left her injured and in pain.
The following morning at about 10am her daughter-in-law visited AM to find her still in bed and in despair. She was lying on her back in bed, her legs sprawled wide apart and visibly in pain.
On the blanket was feaces and stains of semen and blood.
She recounted to her daughter- in-law what happened and was able to identify the culprit.
AM was rushed to Keumbu Sub-District Hospital where she was examined and treated.
“The victim had blood stains in her private parts and was in a lot of pain. Found in her was a substance which on being tested turned out to be spermatozoa. It was beyond peradventure that there had been penetration into her vagina,” court papers state.
Akunga was arrested in March 2011. He had ran a way from home after committing the despicable act and only returned to attend a sister’s funeral. That was when he was apprehended.
At the magistrate’s court, he was found guilty and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
His appeal at the High Court failed.
Akunga proceeded to the Court of Appeal where he attacked the manner in which he was identified.
He complained that when the old woman was assaulted, there was darkness and not enough light that could be used reliably to single him out.
“Moreover, that the identifying witness, elderly, admitted before the trial court that she had problems with her sight and was unable to see the accused during the trial conducted in broad day light, barely five months after the alleged offence. On this the appellant contends that there was no evidence that the problems of eyesight were attributed to the assault. It was argued that the court ought to have probed into how the victim could have identified her assailant other than by sight especially when he, the appellant, was mono-eyed,” the papers say.
But in the end, the three judges in a judgement dated July 21 found that the room had some light and, together with the fact that the man was a neighbour to the victim, he was rightly identified.
“We observe that there was a finding, supported by the evidence on record, that at the time of the assault, the victim was able to see the assailant because there was light in her room. Whatever the reasons for her subsequent quick deterioration of sight, it does not diminish the strength of her evidence that she saw her assailant sexually assault her for over two hours. Important as well is that there was overwhelming evidence that the assailant was well known to the victim and so the evidence was that of recognition,” the judgment reads.
“No doubt a forensic examination of the spermatozoa found in the victim may have added a significant layer to the strength of the prosecution case, yet we hold that the recognition evidence sufficiently and safely proved that the appellant was the perpetrator of this most despicable offence.”
The judges affirmed that the 30 years sentence was deserved.
