A 16-year-old girl was rescued from her abusive employer in Pipeline Estate, Nakuru Town on Wednesday, March 4.
Neighbours who were outraged by the mistreatment of the minor came to her rescue. They reported the matter to police officers who acted with speed and arrested her employer identified as Susan Wangechi.
“We received complaints from neighbours who said the suspect had employed an underage girl whom she had assaulted several times. The girl has been rescued and the woman arrested," Nakuru East Sub-County Police Commander Elena Kabukuru told the publication.
Further, the officer stated that the girl had suffered a broken arm and a bruised face.
Neighbours stated they would often hear the girl crying for help from where they believed she was being brutalised by her employer.
"On Monday, I saw the girl dumping garbage outside their house and I approached her.
"Her left arm was swollen and her forehead had a fresh wound. She was malnourished and when I tried speaking to her, she broke into tears," one of the neighbours stated.
It is then that the matter was reported and the police laid a trap near the house and arrested her.
In her defence, Wangechi argued that she was disciplining the girl.
She added that she had taken her in to facilitate her education.
The Employment Act of Kenya states that a child of between thirteen years of age and sixteen years of age may be employed to perform light duties.
However, it prohibits employers to expose the children to work that could likely harm their health or development.
"Not such as to prejudice the child's attendance at school, his participation in vocational orientation or training programmes approved by the Minister or his capacity to benefit from the instructions received," reads the act.
