Court upholds defiler's 20-year prison term

A man who had been jailed for defiling his three granddaughters and impregnating one of them has lost an appeal against his 20-year jail term.

Initially, the grandfather identified as ZNM had been slapped with an 85-year sentence, which the High Court reduced to 20 years.

Three appellate judges declined to tamper with the sentence on grounds that the offences were serious.

The girls' evidence and a DNA report showed he had fathered a baby born on September 17, 2012. The minors had been left in his care by their mother.

Justices William Ouko, Gatembu Kairu and Kathurima MÍnoti said contrary to claims by the old man that DNA samples had been illegally extracted from him, he had consented to the test before the trial court. ZNM's age was not given in the suit papers.

"He was sentenced to 25 years on count 1, 30 years on count 2 and 30 years on count 3. The sentences were to run consecutively. As stated, those sentences were reduced by the High Court to 15, 20 and 10 years respectively with a direction that the sentences would run concurrently. It has not been demonstrated that the sentences are illegal, and we have no basis for interfering with the same, "reads part of the judgment delivered on February 19.

In her quest to give the daughters a better education and time to concentrate on their studies, the girls' mother took them to live with their grandfather in 2011. The school where they had been enrolled was close to her father's home.

In her testimony, the eldest girl born in 1985 narrated that one night in October 2011, the grandfather upon returning from a fishing expedition, he was a fisherman, found them sleeping, only to defile her.

Bleeding from her private parts, she woke up her sisters and told them what had happened. None of them took action, and she was unable to go to school the following day. That same night her grandfather defiled her again upon returning home from fishing. She informed her sister and the following day they went to their mother's home but were told to go back because of school.

She said she resisted the appellant’s attempt to defile her on a subsequent occasion. He then defiled the sister who was a year younger before turning on their lastborn.