• The teacher defiled the pupil on three occasions, then forced her to do abortion, which was botched and risked her life
• In his defence, King’oo denied the charges, saying they were trumped-up because his family and that of MM had a dispute over a piece of land.
Image: FILE
A primary school teacher who defiled a 12-year-old Standard 6 pupil on three occasions before forcibly inducing a failed abortion will spend 20 years in jail after appeals flopped.
The man had earlier been handed a life sentence by a magistrate but the High Court reduced the punishment to 20 years, a decision that has been affirmed by the Court of Appeal.
The High Court decision was delivered in 2019.
Moses Muli King’oo, who was the science teacher to MM, lured her to his house to pick cloths in February 2010.
Once she entered the house, he grabbed her and threw her onto his bed. He forced her to undress and defiled her.
He then ordered her to go home and warned her not tell anyone about what he had done.
Two weeks later, when MM went to wash clothes in the river, the teacher pulled her into a nearby bush and defiled her once again.
On the third occasion at a time not specified in the court papers, the man again forced himself on the minor.
A month later, MM fell ill and her mother became suspicious and took her to a dispensary for a pregnancy test. However, the test was not done as there was no equipment to test her.
After sometime, the defiler, his wife, the pupil and her mother went to another person’s house in Ukunda, Kwale, where a botched abortion was procured on MM.
Jackson Mulinge Mutie, the man who carried out the procedure and who was later charged alongside King’oo, is said to have inserted a metal object in the girl's private parts, then pricked her with the metal object and she felt pain. He also injected her on her backside.
All the while, the girl's mother and King’oo’s wife had been ordered to stay a distance from that house.
On reaching home after the procedure, the minor started bleeding heavily and when her mother complained to the teacher, he told her not to worry.
Eventually, the matter reached police and the man, alongside the medic Mulinge were arraigned before a magistrate. King’oo was convicted of defilement but Mulinge got acquitted of forcibly inducing a failed abortion.
In his defence, King’oo denied the charges, saying they were trumped-up because his family and that of MM had a dispute over a piece of land.
He also claimed that the family was envious of his teaching job and they were making every effort to see him jobless.
While he was sent to life in prison, the magistrate referred Mulinge to the disciplinary actors in his medical profession, directing that a copy of the judgment be sent to the Director of Medical Services and the Clinical Officers Council for administrative action.
King’oo appealed the verdict at the High Court but failed, save for the life sentence which was reduced to 20 years.
The Court of Appeal, in a decision dated November 10, said the man deserved to be jailed for the period handed to him because though defiling the minor was already worse, his attempting to procure an incompetent abortion that threatened the life of the minor was aggravating.
“As regards the sentence, the appellant was sentenced to life imprisonment which was then reduced by the High Court to 20 years imprisonment. While the courts have expressed reservations regarding mandatory minimum sentences, we are not prepared to hold that the length of the sentences prescribed is unconstitutional," the court papers say.
"We have considered the sentence meted herein and we are not prepared to interfere with it. This was a case where not only was MM subjected to an ordeal of defilement, but had to undergo an unsuccessful abortion thus aggravating the matter.”