Residents of the Chepilat Village in Bomet County took to the streets on Thursday to protest the increased number of defilement and sodomy cases against children in the area.
Led by women and church leaders, the protests were fueled by the latest defilement and sodomy of a 12-year-old girl, who is yet to receive any justice, by a well-known resident which affected the victim heavily both physically and emotionally.
“The girl is currently not in school. We have hidden her in a safe place because she was in a very terrible state and we are here in solidarity with the people of Sotik, the people of Manaret. All the churches are here and the whole community is here,” one of the protestors said.
“We are really crying as women and as mothers of Sotik and we are saying no to defilement, especially for our young girls and our young boys,” she added.
The Sotik residents decried the emotional scars caused by such attacks on young children which could impact their mental state noting that this would explain why the new generation was such a bitter generation.
“Our boys are being sodomised, our boys are being used and we are raising a very bitter generation and this thing will continue thereafter we are raising children who have a lot of hurt in their hearts and have experienced very heinous inhuman acts,” another protestor noted.
Church leaders who joined the protestors expressed their readiness to work with the victims to counsel them but also called on the parents to report the cases of defilement and not accept to deal with it out of court as has been the norm so far.
“As the church, we are saying that enough is enough. Let our children be children. We are used to saying we will settle out of court but we are saying if a child is molested, you should report so that justice can be served. As a church, we are ready to counsel the children but above all, we are saying such things should not be happening in our village,” one of the church leaders stated.
He went on to urge the courts to handle the cases with the seriousness they deserve as they were heavy issues that no child should be dealing with. He called upon the parents to be the voices of their children and not conceal any defilement cases.
Referencing the case of the 12-year-old girl recently defiled, he implored the government and other agencies capable of helping eradicate the heinous crimes from their community to help them deal with the epidemic.
“The suspect was arrested and even taken to court. I was there. However, I noticed that the magistrate was handling all the other cases well but when it came to the defilement case I don’t know what happened. He was given a bond of Ksh100,000 and released. We are not satisfied with the ruling and we believe something fishy happened,” another protestor said of the defilement case.
