A magistrate’s court in Tigania has issued a warrant of arrest against a 54-year-old farmer accused of repeatedly defiling his 13-year-old daughter and infecting her with HIV.
The man has since gone into hiding.
Principal Magistrate Gathogo Sogomo ordered police to hunt down and apprehend the man who hails from Mbaranga area, for presentation before him to hear the court’s verdict.
The case was coming up for judgment on Friday when senior state counsel Michael Mutune informed the court that the man, who is out on bond, had skipped the session.
The man is accused of sexually abusing the child since she was five and in the process infecting her with the disease.
It is alleged that on February 22, 2020, the man had left his bed and went to where the girl slept with siblings and started fondling her.
The horrified girl started to scream and ran out of the house but the man pursued and ordered her back to the house.
It is then that he threw her on the bed and defiled her, saying that he had already made up his mind that he would transform the minor into his wife.
During the hearing that spanned over one year, the court heard that the man had vowed to ensure that the girl compensated for the amount of money he paid in school fees.
“After he finished defiling her, he repeated the words that he had already made her his wife. He covered her and then left to his bed which is in the same rented room,” the court heard.
The following day, the girl started feeling the pain that she had endured since she was five years old when her father started defiling her, and after ensuring that he was fast asleep, walked out and informed a neighbour.
The girl explained that she had only recently learnt about the consequences of unprotected sex in school and gathered the courage to fight back.
She told the court that she had earlier on informed her grandmother who warned her against taking her father to court. The stepmother, on the other hand, dismissed her story as a lie.
Together with the neighbour, they reported the matter to the area chief who sent a nyumba kumi elder, who escorted them to Muthara police station where the matter was booked.
When the girl was taken to Muthara Sub-county hospital for medical examination, it was established that she had contracted HIV and was put on antiretroviral drugs.
Mr Sogomo fixed the reading of the judgment for April 19, 2021.
