A 50-year-old man has been sentenced to serve life imprisonment by a Narok Court after he was found guilty of defiling his nine-year-old step-daughter.
Samson Tobiko Sasile had appeared before Narok Senior Resident Magistrate Mr. Hosea Ng`ang`a charged with defiling the minor on August 27, 2018 at Makutano junction area in Narok East.
He also faced an alternative charge of indecently assaulting the minor by touching her private parts but these charge expired after he was convicted of the main charges of defilement.
The court was told that the accused and his wife who is the mother of the girl were working in the farm after which the mother left to run another errand.
When the daughter brought porridge to her stepfather in the farm at around midday, the father grabbed her and pinned her to the ground, removed her trouser and defiled her.
The girl then reported the incident to the mother when she came back and the matter was reported to police.
In his judgment, the magistrate said the prosecution had proved their case beyond reasonable doubts. “The facts of the case were well-corroborated and did not leave any loose ends in the case,” he added.
He said the girl though a minor had consistently and meticulously narrated to the court how the accused lured her into his house on a number of occasions and defiled her.
He said the girl`s evidence was also corroborated by other witnesses like the medical officer and the mother.
In his defense, Tobiko had denied the charges claiming that he was framed up by the mother due to a strained relationship they had and that at the time he is alleged to have committed the offense, he was with someone else negotiating the price for a parcel of land the accused wanted lease to him.
But the magistrate tore into this defense saying the accused had betrayed the trust the girl had in him as a father.
“You took advantage of the girl`s vulnerability to expose her to HIV/Aids,”, the magistrate told him.
In mitigation he pleaded for leniency saying he now had no family to turn to because his parents had already died.
The magistrate said he noted the mitigation but the law seeks to protect innocent girls from sexual exploitation by people like the accused. The magistrate reminded the accused of his right of appeal in 14 days.
In 2006, the Parliament passed the Sexual Offences Act which offers stricter offenses to sexual offenders but this does not seem to have done much to reduce this offense.
A police crime report shows that over 6,000 cases of defilement were reported and filed in court in the country in 2014.
By Mabel Keya –Shikuku
