A 34-year-old man escaped lynching in Kisumu on Thursday evening after a mob attacked him on accusation of defiling his two step-daughters.
Villagers accused the man of repeatedly sexually abusing the girls aged 4 and 10.
Joseph Okello Owuor, a voluntary children officer in Kondele, said the matter was brought to his attention by curious neighbours who noticed that the walking style of the girls had changed.
The four-year-old girl could barely walk and pus was oozing from her private parts, Mr Okelo said.
The villagers, who soon milled around the house, pounced on the girls’ mother with kicks and blows before they took her to the office of the assistant chief alongside the children.
The girls’ mother, 24, told Nation that she was aware that the children were defiled but she claimed she assumed it was someone else who was molesting her daughters and not her husband.
“I assumed it was someone else or other children but my 10-year-old daughter had told me that her father was sleeping ‘on top’ of her sister,” said Akinyi.
The suspect said he has had frequent domestic disputes with his wife and when this happens, he sleeps on the bed with the children and his wife sleeps on the couch or on a mattress on the floor.
“Despite sharing the bed with my children, I have never defiled them. Medical tests will vindicate me, I am innocent,” he said.
Kondele police boss Boniface Mutie said officers are only holding the suspect, but the mother of the girls is being treated as the complainant.
The children were taken to the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital while their parents were taken to Kondele Police Station.
