Woman in court for failure to report defilement of 15-year-old schoolgirl
A 21-year-old woman is in trouble for allegedly withholding information about the whereabouts of a 15-year-old schoolgirl knowing she was living with a man in their neighbourhood in Soweto estate, Embakasi East sub county in Nairobi.
Ms Jane Wambui Njeri is facing charges of failing to report that the minor was living with a man who defiled her.
Section 396 (1) of the penal code states that a person who receives or assists another who is, to his knowledge, guilty of an offence, in order to enable him to escape punishment, is said to become an accessory after the fact to the offence.
Section 397 states that any person who becomes an accessory after the fact to a felony is guilty of a felony and is liable, if no other punishment is provided, to imprisonment for three years.
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Ms Njeri is accused of assisting by harboring the suspect only identified as Irungu with knowledge that he was guilty of an offence of defilement in order for him to escape. She is accused of committing the offence on May 15, 2023.
The minor left her mother’s house on May 12, 2023 after a disagreement with the mother and went to live with Irungu after she was introduced to him by the accused person. She stayed with the man at large for three days during which she was defiled.
The child’s mother visited Ms Njeri while looking for her child but the accused person told her that she had not seen the minor.
Ms Njeri later called the minor’s mother on May 15, 2023 and informed her that her daughter was in their neighbourhood.
The child’s mother reported the matter at Soweto Police Station and police officers accompanied her to the premises where the minor was rescued from the man’s house.
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Ms Njeri was summoned to the police station after the minor told the police during investigations that the accused person was the link person between her and the man.
The suspect denied the charges before Senior Principal Magistrate Agnes Mwangi of Makadara Law Courts. She was released on a cash bail of Sh45,000. The case will be mentioned on July 7, 2023 before the hearing starts on November 16, 2023.
Ms Njeri was charged barely two weeks after a man was arraigned for failing to report his housemate for cohabiting with a 17-year-old girl at their shared house in the same estate.
Mr Elly Ochieng Oyoo was arraigned at the same court where he was charged with aiding his housemate to escape a jail term of 15 years.
He denied the charges before Principal Magistrate Eric Mutunga. The magistrate remanded him in custody and ordered for a pre bail report before setting bail and bond terms for the suspect. The report will be tabled on May 23, 2023.
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