A Kilifi court has sentenced a local football coach, to life in prison following his conviction on multiple charges, including defilement, child pornography, and trafficking.
Principal Magistrate Ivy Wasike handed down the sentence after finding Mr Patrick Mbauni Murithi guilty of 10 offences, stating he exploited the vulnerability of his victims and their families.
The court imposed a life sentence for two counts related to sexual offences. Additionally, Mr Murithi was fined Sh30 million per offence, with a default sentence of 50 years, on charges related to child pornography.
For trafficking offences, he received further fines of Sh30 million per count, with an alternative of 30 years in prison if unpaid.
In September 2022, detectives from the Anti-Human Trafficking & Child Protection Unit embarked on an investigative mission that landed them in Malindi town in Kilifi county.
The detectives received a Cyber tip-off from the National Centre of Missing and Exploited Children USA through Google, over a person who was uploading Children's Pornography on Google Cloud.
After tracking phone numbers flagged by Google, investigators identified a well-known Malindi football coach, who is also known as "Coach."
Murithi, who was 28 years of age then, owned the Patarv Football Club in Malindi and coached the Under 15 football team, where he recruited minors to be part of the teams.
The National Centre of Missing and Exploited Children USA receives information from social media service providers and disseminates it to countries through IP addresses.
Mr Murithi was arraigned in Malindi Court and charged with ten counts of defilement, committing indecent Acts with a child, Child Pornography, and Trafficking in a Person of four boys.
The accused committed the offences on various dates between August 1, 2022, and January 11, 2023, at his rented residence in Mwembe Tayari, Kisumu Ndogo estate, Malindi town.
By the time of arrest, detectives found four young boys aged between 9-16 years in the house. According to the evidence adduced in court, Mr Murithi would recruit the boys and offer them and some of their families, educational, financial, and monetary support.
However, he lived with some of the minors and he would sexually abuse them and record them. The mother of one of the victims, a 12-year-old boy, disclosed that his son used to play football at school. But one day he asked her if he could play at Alaskan grounds.
She said her son started coming home late and when she inquired, he informed her that they were playing football and they were advised
“I asked for the coach’s number and each time my child could come late, I would call the coach and he would apologise but I was not happy with my son coming home at 7pm,” she said.
Her son continued to come home late and she demanded to meet the coach (Murithi) who came and met with the husband.
After half term, Mr Murithi requested to live with their son since he was staying with other children.
The parent, without hesitation, released their son on condition that he does not misbehave.
On December 31, 2022, he sought their permission to travel with the boy to his rural home in Nyeri and they had no objection.
They stayed in Nyeri County until January 8, 2023. She disclosed that her son went to greet them after they came back from Nyeri but looked uneasy and in a hurry and he left.
He later stopped passing by home each day. According to the mother, the accused was kind and used to buy her son a pair of trousers, shoes, and a bag.
“I was shocked when he (Murithi) was arrested because he was a good man,” she said.
She revealed that her son was interested in joining the football club after he saw one of his friends carrying a bag and shoes.
His friend informed him that he was heading to Alaskan grounds in Malindi town to play football and was the team's captain.
He also went there and asked if he could join the team and the accused agreed. The boy said the accused started to defile him every evening and warned him not to tell the other boys.
The suspect is said to have continued to defile the boy while in Nyeri and this time it was worse. Anytime the minor tried to resist, the accused would pull him, force him, or hit him with a green pipe, causing him to bleed.
He would also threaten to reduce his lunch money from Sh50 to Sh30. The minor disclosed that while being defiled, the accused could put the phone on the bed and record the act.
When he tried to inquire why he was recording, the accused told him to shut up, stating that he was supposed to do what he was asked and not question.
The accused would also give him a phone to watch videos he had recorded of them having sex. He said Mr Murithi bought him football boots and a bag.
The boy disclosed that he was suffering and asked the accused to release him to go back home but he declined; instead, he continued to defile him at his workplace.
Another minor, aged 10 years and a brother to two of the victims, said he lived with his father and could visit his mother when school was closed. The boy said Mr Murithi and his mother were neighbours.
He used to call the accused "uncle," while his brothers called him "daddy."
The accused would buy food, his sister would cook, and their mother would deliver the food to the accused.
The boy said he told the mother about the defilement, but she would ask him not to worry since he would soon go to his father.
The mother of the three brothers said that one of them was the captain of the Under 15 football team, while another was the captain of the Under 12 team, which the accused coached.
The accused paid her rent for one month and would give her money to buy food even as he stayed with his sons who she could not take care of.
One of his sons travelled with the accused to Nyeri and was ready to relocate to Nairobi. He used to buy clothes for the minor and even bought him a phone.
Mr Nicholas Mongeri, an Mpesa agent told the court that Mr Murithi would withdraw money and inform him, and then one of the minors he said was his son would go and take it for his lunch.
The boy picked up the money and stopped after some time, and another one came to pick.
Ms Triza Wanjiku a counselor to one of the minors said that in the first three months, he would refer to the accused as his mentor and dad who would provide him with money and many other things.
The minor seemed uncomfortable to speak about the issue. However, he later disclosed his ordeal after some time.
Mr Murithi said he stayed with the minors for over one year but their parents never complained that they were being sexually abused.
“I accommodated the minors for 2 months and another 9-10 months and I was not aware that they were being defiled as their parents never reported anything that I was defiling the children or noted anything,” he said.
He said the parents permitted him to travel with their children to his rural home in Nyeri on January 1, 2023, one month before their travelling date.
The mother of the accused, Ms Lydia Muthoni, defended her son against the accusations and said that he came with the boys to her home in Nyeri and she spoke with their mother.
In addition, it was not the first time one of the minors was visiting her home and they used to speak with their mother on the phone and the other children too.
“I used to work with the boys during the day and at night I would sleep with them and they never complained about anything when they were in my home,” she said.
“I have never seen my son smoke even a cigarette and everyone knows he is God-fearing,” she said.
The boy said the accused would assist them when they had no food and in football and that they lived very well.
“Although we were neighbours, we lived as a family. I would go to the accused place, watch television, and sometimes sleep there and he never saw him do anything bad,” he said.
The minor said that the accused friends would come and watch movies and they would cook and eat together.
They would sleep with the door open because of the heat and people would sleep on the veranda and no one complained the accused was bad.
Investigating Officer Chief Inspector Ms Everlyne Mboya stated that the accused was posing as a football coach, harbouring and grooming the minors by living with them and providing school fees, and food.
“The community and neighbors knew the accused as a very good man thus hiding his pedophile nature,” she said.
The arresting officer Sergeant Wyclef Jefwa, from the Anti-Human Trafficking and Child Protection Unit, said the Cyber report and investigations established that the accused was paying school fees to some of the children who called him Daddy.
“We concluded that Mr Murithi was sexually abusing the children he was living with as they came from vulnerable backgrounds,” he said.
Mr Jefwa said during a search in the accused house, they also found clothes for the boys, football jerseys, and birth certificates for unknown children.
The Principal Magistrate said the accused made the parents of the minors build trust and believe he was harmless to the extent of allowing him to stay with their children and even travelling with them to his rural home in Nyeri, miles away from Malindi.
She said the accused was harbouring the minors in his house and also through his Football Foundation, Patarv, recruiting them for sexual exploitation.
Ms Wasike said the exposure of the children to pornographic and sexual content and further sexual abuse of the minors threatens, violates, and infringes the wellbeing of the minors.
“I am satisfied that the accused used the vulnerability of the minors and further used his position as a football coach to lure the minors.
Also, due to the hardship their parents were facing financially, the same put them in a very vulnerable position. He used to provide food shelter and even pay rent, which worked as an inducement for the parents to allow the children to stay with him,” she said.
According to Ms Wasike, the accused through deception, managed to have the mothers release their sons to live with him on the pretext that it would assist to ensure they attend football practice and do not go home late.
He was found guilty of two counts of defilement contrary to the Sexual Offences Act, 2006, four counts of Child Pornography contrary to the Computer Misuse and Cyber Crime Act,2018, and four counts of Trafficking in Person contrary to the Trafficking in Person Act 2018.
The Magistrate emphasized that Mr Murithi’s actions were calculated and deliberate, revealing a premeditated pattern of exploitation that spanned two years.
“The offences took place within the victims’ community, unnoticed until a technology alert flagged the activities,” she noted.
In court, it was revealed that Mr Murithi, an IT professional, had gained admission to a cyber-security program at Oxford University.
He reportedly stored inappropriate materials securely on a cloud platform, ensuring exclusive access to the content.
Ms Wasike pointed out that the accused had a clear mind throughout his actions, with no indications of substance abuse influencing his behavior.
The magistrate expressed concern over the long-term psychological impact on the minors, stressing the importance of continued psychosocial support to help them recover.
"These offenses demand a severe sentence not only to deter similar acts but also to provide a sense of justice to the victims," Ms Wasike concluded.
