Why dads sleep with their daughters

Remember the story of Mercy Igoki, the senior assistant university registrar who accused her daughter of stealing her husband?

Mercy met and adopted an orphaned girl who was three years older than her first born. That was in 2006. The girl bonded very well with her family and her problems began when she had to resign her job to recover from an accident that left her with multiple fractures.

“I enrolled for an undergraduate degree in Meru. I would be away from home sometimes up to three weeks or longer at a time because of my studies,” Mercy was quoted, adding that she then began hearing rumours from neighbours about her adopted daughter sleeping with her husband.

“In anger, I confronted them and to my shock, my husband blamed me for the affair, saying I had brought the girl to him,” said Mercy. She has since forgiven them.

Then there was the case of Samuel Kamotho, a Thika-based engineer who was almost lynched by his neighbours after his wife, Virginia Wangari, accused him of sleeping with his 18-year-old daughter, Lucy Nyawira.

Stories of fathers sleeping with their daughters, biological or adopted, never seem to leave people gaping in wonder. In the case above, the 51-year-old Kamotho denied the allegations, claiming his wife was peddling lies to tarnish his name for refusing to accept her back.

His daughter too denied there was any sexual relationship between them.

But why do fathers sleep with their daughters? And do girls fancy sexual intimacy with their fathers? Is it that some men have such a low sense of value and coupled with their insatiable desire for sex, are blinded into engaging in such distasteful incestuous acts?

 Irene Waruru, a businesswoman based in Kiambu, claims that one of her neighbours slept with his biological daughter for years without being questioned.

“I think he was depressed. His wife and family members were aware of what was going on, but did not do anything. His daughter did not complain either. It was such a twisted family,” she claimed.

But not all cases involve mentally-disturbed fathers; sometimes a totally sane man can take advantage of a mentally-ill daughter. In March, a Maralal court  slapped a 60-year-old man with a 20-year jail sentence for defiling his mentally-ill stepdaughter and infecting her with a sexually transmitted disease.

Maralal Principal Magistrate, Charles Ndegwa who sentenced Lesunya Lekirimpoto, said the prosecution had proved beyond reasonable doubt that the accused had committed the offence and “the court sentences the accused to serve 20 years in jail to serve as an example to would-be offenders.”

The court heard that the accused, his stepdaughter and his wife were sleeping in the same bed when he committed the offence.

He is said to have turned on the teenager after he had domestic differences with his wife and proceeded to defile her.

A quarrel ensued after the incident, prompting the complainant and her mother to report the accused at Wamba Police Station after which he was arrested.

In mitigation, Lekirimpoto, pleaded for leniency because he was the sole breadwinner. But the court said the sentence was commensurate to the offence committed.

Others blame such acts on orders from ‘higher powers.’

Remember the case of the MP from Western Kenya who could no longer visit his village home during the day due to shame as neighbours found out that he was sleeping with his daughter?

Well, it later emerged that the politician had been advised by a local witch doctor to commit the offence to help him win the elections. Others sleep with their daughters on the instructions of leaders of secret cults, who promise spiritual powers or prolonged lives.