Meru father rapes, impregnates class 7 daughter after showing her ‘how to clean privates’

A middle aged man who was sentenced to life in prison for defiling his daughter will now serve thirty years in jail following High Court ruling of his appeal in Meru.

The appellant was convicted for the offence of incest that on diverse dates between the year 2013 and 2016 in Imenti Central District, he defiled his daughter.

The man, whose real identity we chose not to publish, however, appealed on grounds that the court did not disclose some vital information at the trial. He further poked holes in the prosecution’s evidence, insisting that they were contradictory.

During the trial, the court was told the appellant’s wife used to be away from home in pursuit of business engagements, thus he used this opportunity to lure his daughter to sexual liaison since the year 2013 when the complainant was in class seven.

Incriminating evidence of what had secretly been happening was laid bare when the complainant became pregnant and revealed that her dad was responsible. An accusation that the man vehemently denied.

The young girl narrated to the court how she first had a sexual encounter with her father in the year 2013 while in class seven. She said he first lured her into the beastly act by volunteering to teach her how to clean her genitalia.

Immediately after the first lesson on how to clean her privates, odd as it may sound, the father penetrated her anal orifice and threatened to kill her if she shared the gory details of the unnatural act.

The prosecution said the man continued to have anal intercourse with his daughter until November 2015 when he had vaginal sex with her. Push had come to shove and the young girl reported the ordeals she had been subjected to by her father to her mother, leading to a nasty confrontation at their home. The verbal exchange spiralled out of control, with the appellant threatening the girl with an axe.

Life imprisonment

The girl’s mother told the magistrate that the back and forth went on for a while, until when she was called at her daughter’s school and informed that she was pregnant. When asked, the daughter stuck to her guns and insisted that it was her father who was responsible for the pregnancy.

In his mitigation, the appellant claimed that his wife was having an affair with another man of Somali origin. During cross examination, he said he has had a good relationship with her until 2016. This, therefore, informed the trial magistrate in dismissing his defence.

“Considering that our law has not limited life imprisonment to a specific period I am persuaded to temper the sentence with mercy though undeserved,” noted High court Judge Kiarie Waweru in his ruling at Meru court.

Concluding: “I will reduce the sentence from life imprisonment to 30 years imprisonment. To that extent only, the appeal succeeds.”