A Narok court has slapped a 50-year-old man with life imprisonment after pleading with defiling and marrying a 9-year-old girl.
Saigilu Ololosereka, who appeared before Narok Senior Resident Magistrate Phyllis Shinyada, faced two counts: defiling a ten-year-old girl and marrying her in 2019.
In her judgment, Shinyada said the man had been warned of the magnitude of the matter after pleading guilty to the charges but maintained that he had married the girl because the parents had given him her hand in marriage.
The Magistrate said the offense committed was grave and barbaric, saying the last three years must have been the most horrific years for the victim.
The Senior Magistrate continued that the heinous act had a permanent physiological and physical effect as the young girl had undergone Female Genital Mutilation before marriage and later underwent a caesarian session when giving birth.
She noted that the accused man showed no remorse even after he was warned of the magnitude of the offense and instead insisted that the young girl was his wife, whom he had married for three years.
“He merely asked for pardon and reinstated that he did not take the girl by force, but the parents had handed her for marriage, meaning he feels entitled to have the girl as his wife,” the Senior Magistrate said in her judgment.
The fact that such offences are common in the country where girls are exchanged for livestock or other cheap things, Ms. Shinyada said, calls for a stern punishment that will serve as a warning to others with similar intentions.
While sentencing the elderly man to life imprisonment, the Magistrate reiterated she had considered the age of the girl, who was defiled to the extent of being impregnated and that the man has been defiling the minor for the last three years.
She sentenced Ololosereka to life imprisonment for the first count of defilement and three years for the second count of early marriage, which he will serve concurrently.
The state counsel prosecutor Tito Wanga expressed satisfaction with the judgment following the seriousness of the offence.
However, the culprit was reminded of his right to appeal the case in a higher court in 14 days if he was not satisfied with the judgment.
