An HIV-positive man jailed 50 years for defiling daughters

By MURIMI MWANGI

Nyeri County: An HIV-positive man was jailed for 50 years by a Nyeri court for defiling his two daughters. He did this in the presence of their ailing mother.

Silvester Wanjau Kariuki faced two separate counts of defilement of the minors aged nine and 14 years old in 2012.

Yesterday, Nyeri Resident Magistrate John Aringo handed him 20 years for the first offence, and another 30 years for the second.

Earlier in the case, the two minors had narrated the shocking ordeal that they had suffered at the hands of their father.

The 14-year-old, a Standard Eight pupil, had told the court that her father defiled her in the presence of her mother who was too ill to come to her rescue. Her father then threatened her and warned her against disclosing what had happened.

In his judgement, the magistrate indicated that the traumatised girl accompanied her ailing mother to the Nyeri Provincial Hospital where she had gone for her anti-retroviral drugs, and took an HIV test, which returned negative. Her younger sister, a Standard Four pupil, faced the same painful ordeal months later.

The shocking details emerged months after the children had left their home to live with their grandmother, after their mother died.

In mitigation, Kariuki claimed that he loved his children and asked the court to set him free so that he could take care of them since their mother had died, adding that he was HIV-positive. He also claimed that he was framed by the girls’ aunt and grandmother.