Farmhand handed life sentence for defiling girl, 5
By Charles WanyoroA 30-year old farmhand who defiled a five-year-old girl has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a Maua Magistrate’s court, in a case where children’s testimony helped secure the case.
Senior Resident magistrate Millicent Nyigei ruled that the prosecution had proved beyond a reasonable doubt that David Mwenda lured the minor while playing with her friends in Kirimampio area of Igembe South, and defiled her.
During the hearing that lasted nine months, the prosecution called in five witnesses, two of them minors, who positively identified the suspect since he was known to them.
Narrating the ordeal she went through, the girl told the court how on the material day, October 10, 2019, the man approached her saying he needed water to drink.
After he was through, he lured the girl to a house that was under construction where he undressed her before sexually assaulting her as she lay on timber strewn on the ground.
She screamed in pain but the man covered her mouth with a jacket to silence her, but luckily, one attentive boy had heard her distress call and went to investigate.
Incomplete house
He tiptoed to the incomplete house and found the man defiling the girl and called other children and together, they managed to chase away the offender who was well known in the village.
The boy later testified that they had thought that Mr Mwenda wanted to send her to the shop since he had previously worked at their home.
The girl’s mother recounted how she was called at around 3pm and informed that her daughter had been defiled by a man known to her and that neighbours had rushed her to hospital.
A clinical officer at Maua sub-county hospital who examined the girl said the genital area had a visible laceration and the hymen was torn and was actively bleeding, a sign of penetration.
The medic explained that there was trauma inflicted on the child’s genital area.
During the hearing, Mwenda insisted that he was innocent and that he had been framed but State Counsel Kelvin Maina urged the court to ignore the claims and mete severe sentence.
“I pray for leniency, I am usually a good person. I have never been arrested before and pray for the court’s mercy,” he cried to the court.
While making the ruling, the magistrate noted that the girl had one month to attain five years and she, together with other witnesses, had successfully identified the man and wondered what would motivate her to frame him.
“The accused says that he did not defile the child and that he was framed. He has not said why he would be framed by a child. The victim was a very young child who will be affected by the crime committed against her. I shall, therefore, sentence the accused person to life imprisonment as is provided by the law,” said Ms Nyigei.
The magistrate said the convict had a right of reply within 14 days.