Defilement suspect in daring police station escape

A defilement suspect escaped from Wajir Police Station on Monday while another suspect is also being sought for defiling a 15-year-old girl within the compound of Wajir Girls Secondary School.

Concerns have been raised following reports that at least 20 girls have been defiled in different parts across the country in the last two weeks, according to police reports.

Police however say most cases go unreported, making it difficult to get the actual figures.

On Monday morning, Abu-Bakr Mohamed Husein, 20, suspected of defilement, escaped from Wajir police station after knocking an officer down before scaling a perimeter wall.

The suspect had been remanded at the station by the Wajir Law Courts pending identification parade and was to appear before the court that day.

In the same area, a neighbour’s son defiled a girl aged 15 after her mother left her home alone. Kheria Duga, a resident of Wajir Girls’ Secondary school area left her daughter, Amina Daud, home alone at around 10am when a neighbour’s son, Issa, 20, came into the compound and took her inside the house where he forcefully undressed her and defiled her. He later unlocked the door and ran away. The victim informed her mother what had happened and was rushed to Wajir general hospital where she underwent treatment. The suspect is yet to be apprehended. Two other cases were reported involving girls aged 15 and 16.

In Murang’a County on May 13, a girl aged 15 reported that for several months, a bodaboda operator who used to ferry her to school, defiled and impregnated her.

The juvenile alleged that the suspect, Kelvin Mungai, 28, convinced her that he would be taking her to school for free. They started meeting at different guestrooms in Maragua and Kaharate shopping centers and the suspect would buy her food, defile her and in the process she got pregnant. She was taken to Maragua hospital where she was examined, treated and discharged. The suspect was arrested and positively identified by the victim.

he second girl, 16, reported that a bodaboda operator, Kenneth Ngethe, offered to take her to her grandmother’s place but instead, diverted her to his house and defiled her. She was taken to Maragua hospital where she was treated and discharged at a fair condition. The suspect was also arrested and positively identified.

Another case was reported on May 15, in Rangwe police station in Homabay County where a person, well known to a 5-year-old child, defiled her after calling her away from the children she was playing with.

Belly Kansime, 5, was in the company of her father, Ochieng’ Miguna, and a PP2 pupil at Randung’ Primary School when she was defiled. Police officers established that the child was playing with other children when Collins, a person she knew, called and assaulted and forcefully defiled her.

She was then rushed to Rangwe Sub county hospital for treatment where the doctors confirmed that the child had been defiled. The suspect is yet to be detained.

In another case on the evening of May 18, in Kangundo division, Munike village, a stepfather was found defiling his stepdaughter in his bedroom. Lydia Kavindu came home from Kawethei market only to find her husband, Nicholas Ndambuki, 35, defiling her daughter, Mishel Ndambuki, aged 13, in her matrimonial bed. She raised an alarm, and members of the public responded where they arrested and escorted the suspect to Kawethei patrol base while the victim was taken to Kangundo level IV hospital for medical examination.

According to the 2023 Police Crime Report, in the last year, more than 13,000 cases of defilement were reported which indicated a rise by 1.5 percent from 2022 cases. A study shows that majority of the defilements were perpetrated by persons known to the victims, namely parents, family members or neighbors.

Under the Sexual Offences Act, a person who commits an offence of defilement with a child aged 11 years or less shall upon conviction be sentenced to imprisonment for life.

However, if the victim is aged between 12 and 15 the accused is liable to imprisonment for a term not less than 20 years.