Here’s what Tobiko has ordered done to man who defiled Mwende

By PAMELA CHEPKEMEI

Kitui, Kenya: Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko has ordered police to arrest and charge in court a man alleged to have sexually assaulted a minor in Mwingi County three years ago.

The DPP said in a press release that Peter Nzuki Mbuvi would be charged for causing grievous harm to the girl who is now ailing and is walking with the aid of crutches.

“While acquitting the accused, the trial magistrate emphasised the fact that the accused person was never charged with the offence of grievous harm,” said Tobiko.

Mbuvi is also not off the hook over the sexual assault charges because the DPP has appealed against his acquittal.

Charge of conspiracy

The medical doctor who testified against Mbuvi told the court the victim had sustained a fracture of the neck and left thigh, an injury, which he classified as grievous harm.

The victim testified that Mbuvi inflicted this injury on her in the course of the sexual assault.

The DPP has also appealed to the High Court against the acquittal of the suspect by a resident magistrate in Mwingi.

The mother of the girl, who is reported to have disappeared with the suspect, will also be investigated separately to establish if there is evidence on a charge of conspiracy to defeat justice. The ODPP will also seek to establish if she can be charged for the offence of cruelty and neglect of a child contrary to Section 127 of the Children Act.

Tobiko added that after perusing the police file and the court proceedings, he found that there was sufficient evidence to sustain the sexual assault charges against Mbuvi.

“Accordingly, I have directed the head of our Machakos County Office to immediately seek an extension of time and to appeal against the decision of the trial magistrate at the High Court in Machakos,” said the DPP.

The DPP intervened following a report in last week’s The Standard on Sunday newspaper detailing the suffering the girl in undergoing.

The investigations conducted by Office of the DPP (ODPP) further revealed that Mbuvi was tried for defilement and an alternative charge of committing an indecent act with a child.

He was acquitted by the magistrate H M Nyaberi and set free on grounds that there were glaring contradictions in the evidence adduced by the prosecution and that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges “beyond any shadow of doubt.”

During the trial the victim’s mother, and the area chief testified.

The doctor, however, produced a P3 form stating that the girl’s hymen was intact. The victim told The Standard on Sunday during the interview that she was sexually assaulted on September 13, 2011. She was then a Class Three pupil aged 11.

Her mother and the suspect kept her indoors despite the injuries she suffered until relatives and the area chief intervened.