Court clerk translates wrong charges, man pleads guilty

As the English man says, you cannot kill two birds with one stone.

A court clerk at a Nairobi court failed to live up to this phrase found him on the wrong side.

On Tuesday, as the prosecutor was busy reading the charges in English, the clerk was busy speaking with some police officers, and ended up translating the charges wrongly to a suspect in a defilement case. He pleaded guilty to defiling the daughter.

The magistrate was forced to read the facts to the suspect afresh after it emerged that after a long period of listening, the clerk had lost the suspect, as he could not understand him.

Prosecutor: “You forced the minor to bent over the sofa set and inserted your manhood in her, she was your own daughter,” the prosecutor said as he waited the clerk to translate.

Clerk: “Mbaya mbaya huyo jamaa mpaka tumugongee (that’s wrong, we have to beat that man)” the clerk said amid laughter in the courtroom.

Suspect; “Mkubwa sijaelewa rudia…eti? (Sir, I have not understood. What?)” the suspected said.

A man charged with assaulting his wife caused laughter in court after he said his beloved wife had abandoned him and would collude with his firstborn, whom he identified as Marto, to beat him up every time he could come home drunk.

“Your honour, Marto and my wife, whom I loved so much, would beat me up and try to strangle me. I want this court to take action against her,” he told the court.

In a rejoinder, the wife who was a witness, said she does have enough muscles to beat the man up.

An old man charged with defiling a four-year-old girl shocked the court on Friday when he removed his mucus using his hands.

The suspect, who seemed confused, first looked for a handkerchief in his pocket and when he couldn’t find it, he decided to take matters into his own hands.

He left the court attendants in shock as others spoke in low tones. The magistrate ignored him and ordered the case to proceed next month after he was found to have a case to answer.