Neighbour who defiled boy handed 19-year jail term

The Holy Book commands us to observe the sabbath and keep it holy. But it was on such a night that JMK, 12, suffered a brutal experience at the hands of someone he trusted.

At around 6 pm on Sunday, February 17, 2019, JMK left home for the nearest market at a village in Nyandarua.

While there, the boy met with Elijah Warui Chiri, a boda boda rider and neighbour who had been teaching him how to ride a motorcycle for about a month.

The man took him to a hotel bought him tea and mandazi, and asked him to wait for him as he dropped his customer at their destination. 

When he came back, it was already 9 pm and Chiri, in the guise of a caring adult, suggested that the boy spend the night at his house so he could go home the next day in daylight.

But when they got to the man's house, the sheep's mask was suddenly replaced when Chiri covered JMK's mouth with a piece of cloth.

The boy fell unconscious only to wake up at around 1 am and to his shock, he was naked with Chiri on top of him, defiling him.

Despite the boy's pleas for him to stop causing him pain, the man kept on it.

Come day break at around 5 am, Chiri rode the boy back to the market and ordered him to tell no one about the night's ordeal.

When JMK got home, however, he could not keep the man's dirty secret for long as his mother insisted on knowing where her son had slept the previous night.

The scared boy told her and she proceeded to report the same at Murungara police station.

JMK was later taken to the hospital where the doctor's observation revealed that he had been sodomised. 

The boy underwent counselling and a case was filed where Chiri was charged with defilement contrary to the law.

In his defence, Chiri denied the offence claiming that he bought the boy tea and went back to his business up until 10 pm. 

He told the court that he was arrested on March 1, 2019.

The trial court deliberated the case and found that the prosecution had proved the offence beyond reasonable doubt.

He was convicted and sentenced to  20 years imprisonment.

Maintaining his innocence, however, Chiri moved to the High Court at Naivasha claiming that JMK had fixed him following threats from his mother.

He also claimed that the boy's age was not proven.

The state however submitted that the aforesaid had been supported by a birth certificate showing that JMK was born on October 6, 2006. 

Judge Hedwig Ong'udi reviewed the case and found that the trial court had not erred in its conviction.

This is considering that the evidence showed that at the time, JMK was 12 years and four months.

The doctor had also established evidence supporting defilement and rubbished Chiri's argument that the boy should have narrated to the court how he felt, and what he perceived or heard during the vile act.

"The boy told the court how he informed the perpetrator that he was feeling pain but the man kept quiet and continued defiling him. What else did the appellant (Chiri) want to hear?" Ong'udi asked.

The judge also pointed out that the man did not deny that he was with JMK on February 17, 2019. He only denied taking him to his house and defiling bit.

"I find that the ingredients required to prove a case of defilement were established in this case and there is no reason to make this court interfere with the finding by the learned trial magistrate on conviction," the court paper reads.

In sentencing him, Judge Ong'udi however took into consideration the time spent in custody during the trial.

He found that the man was arrested on March 1, 2019, arraigned three days later on March 4, and released on June 4, 2019, on bond.

Chiri was in custody for three months before the trial court's judgement.

"I therefore find the sentence to be lawful less the three months spent in custody before the determination of the case" the judge ruled. 

Chiri will serve his jail term of 19 years and 9 months.