Defiled minor by a 50-year-old man rescued, body found

BY JAMES OMORO and KARANJA NJOROGE

Homa Bay, Nakuru Counties

A Standard Seven girl was rescued from a man alleged to have been defiling her for the last two weeks in Homa Bay County.

Residents on Monday stormed a hide-out used by the 50-year-old man after the girl’s disappearance was reported to the area chief.

The house, in Rachuonyo North district, is said to belong to a woman the man inherited according to Luo customs.

The minor went missing from her parents’ home under mysterious circumstances, a situation that prompted residents to mount a search for her.

Eyewitnesses said the whereabouts of the minor was leaked by one of the relatives of the woman who owned the house, where she was being abused sexually. Area residents claimed the suspect, who had no wife, had a tendency of inheriting widows and defiling children.

He was arrested and frog-marched to the Kendu Bay Police Station, pending police investigations. Rachuonyo North OCPD Joseph Kisombe said the minor was taken to hospital for medical tests.

“What happened to the child is traumatising. We shall take her to a children’s protection centre and the man will be arraigned in court soon,” Kisombe said. He warned residents against defilement, which has been on the rise in the area.

Meanwhile, shock gripped Nyakinyua village in Kuresoi North after the body of a Standard Four pupil who had allegedly been raped before she was murdered was found in a bush.

Emotions ran high after residents, who had been looking for the girl, found her half naked body in a thicket near a maize plantation. The 11-year-old pupil of Nyanda Primary School did not return home after school and it is suspected her assailants waylaid her as she walked home.

The child’s mother, Leah Wanjiru, still in shock, said she could not understand why her daughter had been murdered as she was on good terms with her neighbours.

“We are on good terms with our neighbours and we wonder what could have led someone to do this to us,” she said.

Kuresoi OCPD Joseph Wambua said investigations had been launched although no arrest had been made by yesterday. “We are probing the incident and several people have already recorded statements,” he said.

A police source indicated that they were looking for the main suspect who fled the area after the heinous murder.