Julius Wambua, a man serving a life sentence after being allegedly framed by his daughter in a defilement case had his conviction quashed by a court on Wednesday, December 16.
High Court Judge George Odunga overturned the ruling that sentenced the man to life in prison and released him on a cash bail of 30,000 shillings and an alternative bond of 200,000 shillings with a surety of a similar amount pending retrial.
Wambua's story gained public interest after a 2019 feature by anchor Lulu Hassan titled Prison Diaries was aired on Citizen TV.
In his ruling, Justice Odunga ordered a retrial of the case noting that it had garnered considerable public interest.
"The petitioner’s appeal has been considered and determined that he was accused by someone who was coached and wasn’t using her own words, therefore justice must be rendered.
"Pw2 and Pw3 were coerced and threatened by their mother and police so as to implicate the accused over incest and coached on what to say in court. Justice didn’t happen at the time of trial since Pw2 was a minor and was under coercion by the mother," Odunga stated.
Wambua had already served eight years in prison after he was sentenced in 2012 after he was found guilty of defilement.
The court heard that the incident allegedly took place at their home in Yatta in 2011.
in 2019, Musyoka re-connected with her daughter, Dorcas Mwende, who confessed to being coerced to frame her father.
Mwende would later file filed submissions at the Machakos High Court recanting her original testimonies.
A high court in Machakos had in June 2020 allowed for a retrial of the case after the new developments in the case.
Watch Mwende's tearful confession below:
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