A Nyahururu court has sentenced a man to life in prison for committing incest with his 15- year old niece resulting in a pregnancy and birth of a child.
The man was accused of committing the act on December 16, 2020 at Lanet area in Nakuru County.
The accused had denied two counts of defiling the Form Two student and committing an indecent act with the minor.
During the hearing of the case, he had told the court that he had been the minor’s guardian and had taken care of her since she was a toddler-since her mother had been suffering from a terminal illness.
“I have taken care of the minor since she was a toddler, I even enrolled her in kindergarten and I have seen her go through primary school. Therefore, there could be no way I would have defiled her. I do not know who is paying the cheque for me to be here,” he told the court during proceedings.
However, the prosecution, led by Joshua Mokua, presented several witnesses in the course of the hearing, who testified against the accused and linked him to the offense.
The prosecutor urged the court to sentence the accused to life in prison as contained in Section 20 (1) of the Sexual Offence Act because the victim was a minor.
In the Tuesday judgement, Nyahururu Senior Resident Magistrate Vincent Kiplagat ruled that the prosecution had proved the case against the accused person beyond reasonable doubt.
The magistrate while delivering the judgement, said that he relied on the evidence availed before the court. The court also relied on a medical report.
“DNA profile samples generated as per the report of Government Chemist dated January, 2023 linked the accused with 99.9 per cent to being the biological father to the minor born out of the offence.The court in its conclusion linked the accused to be the perpetrator of the heinous act,” ruled the magistrate.
Mr Kiplagat said the minor suffered untold trauma in the hands of the uncle and will live with that trauma for the rest of her life.
“The accused person took advantage of the minor because he was paying school fees for her and would commit the act repeatedly when the minor would travel from Nyandarua to Nakuru to go and collect school fees from him.The offense is grave and he deserves no mercy and therefore this court has sentenced him to life imprisonment,” said the Magistrate.
The accused person had on January 24, this year caused a drama in the court when he opposed bids by the court to have DNA samples collected from him to determine the paternity of the child.
He told the magistrate that he will not allow his blood sample to be taken for DNA testing terming it as idol worshipping.
“Giving my blood out for testing is idol and devil worshipping and it amounts to sacrificing yourself to the devil it is even written in the bible……. Therefore, I will not allow anyone to take my blood as a sample,” said the accused as he took out a Bible from a bag he was carrying to read a scripture to the court.
However, the seemingly amused magistrate told the man that there was no turning back on DNA testing.
Mr Kiplagat noted that the accused had failed to convince the court that the DNA testing was a form of idol worshipping and that the court order that he should undergo the DNA test was in bad faith.
“DNA testing is done by people who are geneticists and are stationed at the government chemist. If they are going to sacrifice you let them do so,” said the magistrate then, sending the courtroom to laughter.
