Daily Nation, Nairobi, 13 November 1998

Man jailed for seven years for defiling girl, 10

An elderly man was yesterday jailed for seven years by a Murang'a court for abducting a Standard Three girl and defiling her for two nights.

Peter Mwangi Kamau was convicted by Murang'a Resident Magistrate Alice Mwikali King'oo, who also ordered that he receive seven strokes of the cane.

Kamau, who was unrepresented, had denied that on August 14 last year at Kagumo-ini village in Mathioya Division, he raped the girl.

An alternative charge stated that the accused indecently assaulted the girl, who was then 10.

The girl told the court that she had accompanied a friend on a milk collection mission when she came across the accused.

She said Kamau, 50, sent her to a nearby shop to buy a match box, tea leaves and snuff, while her friend was ordered to collect the milk on her own.

When she came back, the accused locked her inside the house and defiled her.

The prosecutor, Corporal Mathew Mwangi, said that al though the accused was a first offender he committed a heinous offence and deserved no mercy.

In her judgment, Miss King'oo said it had been established that the accused infected the young girl with a venereal disease and that the trauma she underwent was "unimaginable" considering her age.

"You behaved like a beast and you are very lucky that the powers of this court cannot sentence you for more than seven years imprisonment and seven strokes of the cane," she added.