Poor parents! Justice denied for defiled girls
David Ochieng', a village elder in Busia County, acknowledges that cases of interference are common from the rich and influential people in the community, during an interview on August 1, 2024.
What you need to know:
- In 2019, his 13-year-old daughter was defiled by a son of an army officer. His case is that of desperation.
- The are known cases of children being denied justice by virtue of the unfortunate poor status of their parents.
In May last year, a farmhand of a Busia Member of the County Assembly (MCA) defiled a seven-year-old girl, Emily*, who happens to be the legislator’s first cousin.
Emily’s father and the MCA are cousins. She was playing with the MCA’s children in their compound after lunch, when the farmhand called her and defiled her in the bedroom of the MCA’s children.
Her father, Ricky*, said the MCA’s wife found him in the act, scolded him and sent him to the farm to weed.
Thereafter, she informed her husband who advised her to rush the baby to the nearest hospital without informing her parents, he said.
He couldn’t have known the status of his child had it not been for his eldest daughter who had gone to the market at around 6.30pm to buy cooking oil.
She heard people spread the news in the market and rushed back home to her father, who at the time was down with malaria.
“I woke up like a madman and rushed to the home of the MCA. I found his mother who confirmed the news. I asked her: ‘Surely, how can you not tell me? Why are you doing this to me?’” he recalled.
Ricky*, the father of a girl defiled at seven years old by a farmhand of a Busia Member of the County Assembly, speaks to NTV reporter Ruth Munyi on July 31, 2024.
By this time, the MCA’s wife had already arrived at the hospital, which they refused to disclose to him. Until now, Ricky said he was in the dark about the findings of the medical examination.
However, he reported the matter to the police, and when they came to arrest him, he had already disappeared.
Thereafter, Ricky said, the MCA attempted to bribe him with Sh100,000 to stop pursuing justice for his daughter.
A culprit like the MCA’s farmhand is to be sent to jail for a lifetime once convicted under the Sexual Offences Act (2006), which awards the sentence to anyone who defiles a child aged 11 or below.
“How can he give me Sh100,000 to turn a blind eye to my daughter’s injustice? Just because I live in a grass house does not mean my daughter is up for sale. I want justice for my daughter. Nothing else. I’m appealing to the government to intervene and force the MCA to produce him,” he pleaded.
Ali*, too, is walking the long painful journey with his daughter.
In 2019, his 13-year-old daughter was defiled by a son of an army officer. His case is that of desperation.
When he refused to take the Sh100,000 the family offered, the exhibit of the bed sheet and clothes that his daughter wore during the violation suddenly disappeared from the exhibit’s store together with the file.
Further, the witnesses who had earlier accepted to testify in favour of his daughter, suddenly declined to do so.
“I always feel like my world has come to an end every time I have to make a trip to court to follow up on the case. I’ll never rest though until my daughter gets justice,” he said.
These are just a few of the known cases of children denied justice by virtue of the unfortunate poor status of their parents.
From Ricky’s and Ali’s testimonies, it’s clear that those with money interfere with the justice system, denying the children their right to redress and protection.
Busia is among the counties with the highest prevalence of sexual violence. The 2022 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey found that overall 14.7 per cent of women and girls aged 15–49 had experienced the violence in their lifetime.
There are, however, efforts to promote children’s access to justice.
David Ochieng, a village elder in Busia County, acknowledged that cases of interference are common from the rich and influential people in the community.
To counter this, he said they work with the chiefs and members of Nyumba Kumi to warn the interested parties. He said they also work with courts user committees to accelerate conclusion of the cases that attract a lot of interest.
“When I became a village elder in 2018, I’d receive up to four cases every month of parents and relatives wanting an out-of-court settlement. I’d warn them of being arrested if they diverted the justice system. They stopped,” said Mr David.
Sheikh Ali Nguu, chairperson of Busia’s alternative justice system, attributed the recent convictions of defilers to the continued engagement with relevant stakeholders to protect children and ensure they get justice for crimes committed against them.
“We take defilement cases seriously, and we want them to be concluded within six months,” he said.
Recently, a magistrate's court in Busia sentenced a man to 30 years in prison after he was found guilty of defiling a five-year-old girl and infecting her with a sexually transmitted infection.
In September last year, a Busia MCA accused of defiling a 14-year-old girl was brought to court only after the local women protested. The case is ongoing.
Earlier, the Port Victoria Law Courts magistrate who was handling the case withdrew, citing fear for her life.
The magistrate referred it to Busia Principal Magistrate Edna Nyaloti. Magistrate Nyaloti indicated too that she would seek the advice of Chief Justice Martha Koome, should she find the “ground is not good for me to handle it.”
Jean Paul Murunga, End Sexual Violence programme officer at Equality Now, says continuous sensitisation of the chiefs, their assistants, the police and the judicial officers would boost children’s access to justice, on August 1, 2024.
Jean Paul Murunga, End Sexual Violence program officer at Equality Now, said continuous sensitisation of the chiefs, their assistants, the police and the judicial officers boosts children’s access to justice.
“They become more aware of the dangers that these children are exposed to when their cases are dropped or when the cases lag in court for months,” he said.
“They are mentally, physically, emotionally and psychologically tortured. And that is why the county government of Busia needs to invest in child-friendly counselling services.”
*Names changed to protect their identities.
