Dickson Murangiri, Geoffrey Mutethia and Boniface Kimathi at the Meru Law Courts. [Olivia Murithi, Standard]
Three men have been handed a 15-year jail sentence by the Meru Magistrate’s court after being found guilty of gang rape.
Dickson Murangiri, Geoffrey Mutethia and Boniface Kimathi committed the offence on March 23, 2017, at the Meru Police Station.
The three were charged with sodomising a 17-year-old boy.
Murangiri, Mutethia and Kimathi pleaded not guilty when they appeared before Meru Senior Principal Magistrate Stella Abuya on April 7, 2017.
The hearing started on June 8, 2017.
The court heard that the minor had been arrested and charged at the Meru Law Courts with assault.
The minor was returned to Meru Police Station on the same day and put in the cell with two other male inmates.
He recounted to the court how the events leading to his gang rape unfolded later that night.
The teenager told of how Murangiri woke him up some time after 10pm. Since the cell door was open, he went out with Murangiri who had introduced himself earlier in the day as Dickens.
With Murangiri’s hand on the minor’s shoulders, he pulled him to the washrooms where they found the two other suspects waiting.
He informed his cellmate of what had transpired and in the morning when officers came to escort him for age assessment, he reported the matter.
He was treated at the Meru Level Five Hospital.
Dr Stephen Chege stationed at the Meru Level Five Hospital also exhibited before court a P3 form filled out by a colleague who had since left the hospital.
The signed document contained proof that indeed the minor had been defiled.
The officers at the station at the time of the incident also testified, corroborating that indeed the minor had been held together with the suspects.
The case took a twist when state counsel Antony Musyoka informed the court just as the magistrate was about to deliver her judgement that Murangiri and Kimathi were not first offenders. The two together with one Patrick Kareithi are serving a 20 year sentence after being found guilty of killing Julius Mungathia at Maibuki village in Igembe North in 2012. They were convicted on January 22 this year.
Their lawyer Jacqueline Nelima pleaded with the court to be lenient as the suspects who are aged 27, 22 and 26 respectively are still young.
Meru Chief Magistrate Hannah Ndung’u noted that when each of the accused were given an opportunity to defend themselves during the trial, they had opted to remain silent.
The suspects can appeal the sentence within 14 days.
