A Nairobi Court on Friday, July 28, convicted a pastor found guilty of defiling a boy aged 11 and his sister, 14, on diverse dates nine years ago.
While delivering the ruling, Principle Magistrate CM Njagi observed that both the prosecution and the International Justice Mission (IJM), representing the victims, had convincingly established the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
The Principal Magistrate noted that ample evidence was presented, leading to the decision to send the rogue pastor to jail.
According to Njagi, she was convinced that on diverse dates between December 2014 and January 17, 2015, at Bondeni area in Kajiado County, the accused person unlawfully and intentionally sodomised the young boy and defiled his sister.
"He formulated the plan to perform the act of defilement against PWM and MNM herein. As such I find that the two minors were truthful witnesses and their evidence was corroborated by medical evidence.
"I do find that the prosecution proved their case to the required standard as against the accused person herein on the charge of defilement in counts 1 and 2. The accused person is convicted as charged as per the provisions of Section 215 of the CPC," Principal Magistrate Njagi stated.
During the trial, ICJ and the prosecution team explained how the Pastor took advantage of the little children.
The pastor's fate was sealed by the accurate testimonies of the children who narrated how on different occasions, the man of the cloth invited them to church and issued them with instructions that turned out to be immoral snares.
The boy testified that the disgraced pastor invited him and his two friends to his house and waited for his wife to go to work before committing the immoral acts.
As per their testimonies, the children stated that they were welcomed and asked to take a bath. They then ate dinner together and the three boys slept in one of the bedrooms.
When the wife went to work the following morning, the pastor defiled the boys.
The court heard that the pastor then threatened the boy and warned him not to tell anyone what had happened.
The victim told the court that the accused person defiled him several times. The boy also told the court that the pastor defiled one of his friends severally.
Later, the pastor targeted the 14-year-old girl and raped her at her parents' home. The court was told that the pastor hid under the respect that families accorded him to the point that he could easily interact with children.
However, in his defence and throughout the trial, the accused person claimed that he had a mental illness.
"The proceedings are clear on the numerous times this matter arose and the interventions for medical assistance that were born out of this allegation. He was declared fit to stand trial.
"There was no evidence adduced before the court that the accused person's mental illness would express itself through sexually abusing children repeatedly who attended his church," Magistrate Njagi observed.
"Section 2 of the Mental Health Act defines a person suffering from a mental disorder to mean a person who has been found to be so suffering under the Act and includes a person diagnosed as a psychopathic person with mental illness and a person suffering from mental impairment due to alcohol or substance abuse.
"There was no evidence adduced before the court that the condition the accused person suffered him impaired him in such a manner as to prevent him from managing his affairs," Njagi stated.
