When the shepherd preys on his innocent, young flock...

Jeremiah Gechiko Iteke, a pastor in Likoni convicted to 35 years in jail for defiling his 13-year-old step daughter. [File/Standard]

In June, the Court of Appeal upheld a 15-year jail term for Pastor David Mutai for defiling and impregnating a form two student.

DNA profiles had revealed that the girl identified as PN gave birth to a child who is 99.9 per cent the biological child of the pastor.

In the magistrate’s court, the girl testified that the pastor, who was operating from a church near her home, started greeting and asking her to pay him a visit. On August 5, 2010 she fell into his trap when he took her to his house.

He defiled her that day and on August 28, 2010 when he paid her Sh300 not to disclose their relationship to anyone.

It was only after the girl was confronted by her mother and aunt that she revealed she was carrying the pastor’s baby.

He called the chairlady of the women congress at the church as his witness but she could not tell the court whether the pastor entertained any visitors on other days other than Sundays.

The ruling, one of many in recent times, painted a worrisome trend of men of God turning on their flock to feed their unholy appetite for sex. “Yes, this is happening. Some pastors are turning against the children they are expected to protect as lambs who are part of the flock. It is a big shame for them to push the lamb to secular life,” says the International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church (ICCEC) Kenya General Secretary Bishop Joshua Koyoo.

Defiled and killed

In May, the High Court in Kitale slapped a 25-year jail term on a pastor who defiled and killed a Form Four student.

Pastor Charles Okere had been charged with defiling the girl and was released on bond, only for him to track down the girl, who was five months pregnant, and killed her eight years ago.

Bishop Joseph Agutu, 75, is challenging a 75-year imprisonment sentence after a court in Kisumu found him guilty of defiling three girls and infecting one of them with HIV. He committed the crimes between April and July 2016 by luring the girls after promising to cater for their education.

But the bishop, who operated an orphanage, claimed in his appeal papers filed in court that the sentence by Resident magistrate Pauline Mbulika in December last year was not commensurate with the crime committed.

And in Makueni County, an Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) pastor was sentenced to 20 years in jail by Kilungu Law Courts magistrate Charles Mayamba.

The man of the cloth, Pastor David Wambua of Kyakatoni ACK church in Kilungu, was arrested in January this year after he was caught in the act.

In another case, a pastor at the Kamutei Repentance Ministry in Kitui charged with defilement told the court that people in Kamutei had a grudge against him because he was “doing well in life”.

Pastor David Mwato, who is to serve a 20-year jail term, engaged in a sexual encounter with a girl identified by the court as EMN on two different occasions. When she told him that she was pregnant, he advised her to abort.

In her judgment, Judge Lilian Mutende upheld the magistrate’s decision, saying the court imposed on the pastor the minimum prescribed sentence for the offence.

In Nyeri, the High Court upheld a life sentence against a pastor found guilty of defiling a neighbour’s child aged eight.

The child had gone to Pastor Samuel Mutegi of Arise and Shine Church’s house on October 16, 2014 after her mother left for work. He gave the child Sh10 to buy her silence and had two more sexual encounters with her later on.

But her mother got suspicious and on caning her, the girl revealed that the pastor was sexually abusing her. The distraught mother took her to Kiganjo Health Centre, then Nyeri County Referral Hospital.

Watertight case

When she confronted the pastor, he asked her to cool down so they could pray together. She then reported the matter to the police. The trial magistrate’s court heard from six witnesses and slapped the pastor with a life imprisonment. On appeal, High Court Judge Ruth Sitati ruled in December 2018 that the evidence against the pastor was watertight. In another case, a woman accused of taking a girl to a pastor was set free by the High Court.

Mary Kanee, who had been sentenced to serve 10 years in jail, for benefiting from child prostitution, walked to her freedom on May 7, 2018 after the High Court found there was a grudge between the pastor and the girl’s family.

The pastor had resigned from the church in which the girl’s parents were officials and started his own, a move that greatly aggrieved them.

They then reported to the police that Kanee received money from the pastor after delivering their daughter to secret hideouts where she was defiled.

Judge Charles Kariuki ruled that the prosecution failed to prove its case and set her free.