Bomet magistrate court has sentenced a man who allegedly defiled a 16-year-old girl to serve 8 years in jail.
Senior principal magistrate Esther Boke found Weldon Cheruiyot Langat Alias Nahshon guilty of defiling the minor on 22nd day of December 2023 at the Konari location within Bomet County.
While testifying before the court, John Chepwony the father said that his daughter disappeared on the 22nd of December from home after they had taken lunch. He asked in the evening about her whereabouts but no one knew so he reported it to the police.
His said son Weldon also testified as PW4 and told the court that in the evening of 22nd December 2022, he came home from his aunt’s place where he had gone during the day and was told that his sister and another girl went to Olbutyo center to shave their hair and did not come back home. They asked around but there was no clue.
On the 4th day, they got information that the girls were seen at the home of the accused person’s mother Juliana. Who is also the mother to the accused person’s brother known as Cyrus?
He further told the court that he, his father PW3, and a brother to another girl by the name of Boniface went to that home and found Cyrus inside the house. Cyrus tried to stab Boniface with a knife but it missed and PW4 grabbed Cyrus and told him that they were not there for a fight and were looking for certain girls.
Having left together, Cyrus attacked John Chepwony who was later taken to hospital and received treatment. The next day on the 27th, the girls came home and told them that they were in the home of the accused person and Cyrus and that the accused and Cyrus had lied to them and locked them inside the house. She also told them that the accused forced her to have sex with him because he had locked her inside the house.
According to the investigation officer Muthembwa Makao from Olbutyo police station, the victim was taken to the station on 27th December 2022. He told the court what was reported to him as already stated by the previous witnesses. So no need to record again. He referred the victim to the hospital where she was examined and confirmed to have been defiled.
With the help of his colleagues, he managed to arrest the accused person who the girl identified as the one who defiled her.
In his defense, the accused denied defiling the minor as he was seeing her for the first time.
The court found him guilty as charged with defilement and convicted him accordingly.
By Polette Akoth and Irene Chebet
