Police in Kisii are being accused of detaining a Standard Eight pupil at St Dominic Chisaro Primary School in Bonchari Constituency in a cell, after she was allegedly defiled by one of her teachers.
Education Cabinet Secretary Mr Ezekiel Machogu told journalists on Saturday that he was aware of the incident and investigations are being done.
The pupil’s parents are accusing the police officers of conspiring with the alleged rapist to conceal the crime. The child is said to have been chased out of school because her parents had not paid lunch fees.
Speaking at Suneka Police Station where the victim had been locked up in the cells since Thursday after being rescued by boda boda riders who busted the suspect in his house, the girl’s parents lamented that the police had detained their daughter yet she was a victim in search of justice.
But Kisii County Police Commander Mr Charles Kases told the Nation that the girl spent the whole of Thursday in hospital for checkups and that she could not be released to go home during the late hours, due to her own security.
The parents alleged that after their child was sent home from school to fetch the alleged lunch fees, the teacher allegedly followed her and requested the parents to allow him take her to his home so that she could help him in “entertaining” his guests.
However, after a short time, the parents were informed that the teacher had been caught with the child in his house where he was allegedly defiling her.
The child’s parents have appealed to the government to intervene and have their child released from police custody.
“The teacher was caught defiling a 16-year-old pupil inside his house. The people who arrested him are the boda boda riders and brought him to the police,” said the girl’s father.
“It was around midday on Thursday, when I received a call from a teacher from Chisaro, who was asking about my daughter. He said that there was a child who was absent from school. He asked me to get her on the phone,” said the distraught father.
“The teacher came to our home. He talked to our daughter and after a while, he asked the child to see him off. After escorting him, our daughter came back with money claiming that the teacher had given her the cash to use as transport to his home where she had entertained guests for him,” said the girl’s mother who was crying and demanding police to release her daughter.
The parents said that when the teacher arrived at their home, he told them that he was the only “protector” of the child in school because whenever the head teacher allegedly attempted to send her out of school for tuition fees, he allegedly intervened to stop her from being sent to him.
He also allegedly told the parents that their daughter was sent away at a time he was away from school and that since he will return to the school Friday, that is the only time the child should report to school.
The parents allegedly told the teacher that Friday might be too late and that they planned to raise the Sh 1,500 the school was allegedly demanding so that she could be in school Thursday.
After he left, the teacher allegedly told the pupil to go to his home Thursday morning so that she could help him with the alleged entertainment of his guests.
“My daughter told me that the teacher had promised to pick her up from the stage tree (esitechi yemete) and she left without eating anything. I am very sure my daughter was not chased out of school but this teacher has been sexually moseying my daughter,” said the child’s mother.
The mother lamented that police chased her away when she wanted to speak with the child and they were allegedly told that she would be in custody until next week on Monday when the P3 will be ready.
The parents claimed that the police demanded Sh1, 000 allegedly they used to conduct “tests” on her and that they were still “conducting further tests, which will be completed next week. During that time, she would be detained at the police station.
It is not clear how the police could detain a child ostensibly to conduct “tests” especially on a case of suspected defilement.
The police could also not explain how and why they held the child who had complained of defilement and chased away parents who wanted to know what had happened.
“They told us she would be released next week,” said the girl’s uncle, who also claimed that the officers at Suneka were very hostile.
