A 48-year-old mechanic was on Friday evening caught pants down defiling a school girl at the Agricultural Development Corporation (ADC) farm in Sabaki, Malindi Sub County.
Motorcycle taxi (bodaboda) operators trailed the mechanic inside the bushes after one of them spotted the man and the girl entering the farm, caught the paedophile in the act as he was defiling the girl, and arrested him.
It is alleged that the girl had been sent home to collect Sh100 for examination fees.
A friend asked the victim to accompany her to her (friend’s} uncle to collect the money, but the man took the girl to the ADC farm and defiled her promising to pay the Sh100 examination fee in return.
A witness said the mechanic asked his niece to wait beside the road as the girl and the man entered the bushes.
One bodaboda operator noticed what was happening and immediately mobilized colleagues who trailed the man and his juvenile catch and dramatically arrested both of them together with the girl who had been left by the roadside.
They took them to Ebenezer clinic in the Majengo Mapya informal settlement of Malindi for medical tests, but before this could be done, members of the public thronged the health facility’s gate baying for the suspect’s blood.
One bodaboda operator trained in community matters prevailed upon the crowd to allow the tests to be done first, and in the process alerted the police to rush to the man’s rescue.
A nurse at the Ebenezer Clinic later told journalists that medical tests indicated that the girl had been defiled.
The nurse said the girl also tested positive for pregnancy, an indication that Friday’s was not the first sexual activity she had been involved in.
The nurse said she called the girl’s mother to take her daughter to the Malindi Sub County Hospital, but an activist with an anti-gender-based violence organization arrived and called the police.
Officers arrived moments later and took the suspect to the Malindi Police Station as members of the public demanded to be allowed to deal with him.
Bodaboda operators who spoke to journalists said they had taken the action to clear the name of their industry, saying members of the public had branded them child sexual molesters, a tag they loathed.
A police source said the suspect will be arraigned in court on Monday.
By Emmanuel Masha
