Father, son arrested for defiling relative

By Patrick Mutisya in Machakos County.

Police in Machakos County on Tuesday, July 28 arrested a 70-year-old man and his 28-year-old son on allegations of defiling their 11-year-old female relative.

James Kayata Muia and his son, Benjamin Mutinda Muia, who are residents of Kaani Village in Kathiani Constituency, are alleged to have committed the offence on separate occasions between 2016 and 2020.

The minor, a Class Five pupil, is Kayata’s granddaughter. At the same time, she is Mutinda’s niece.

The child told police that her uncle, Mutinda, began defiling her in 2016.

“In that year, he (Mutinda) sexually abused me once. In 2017 and subsequent years, he would do it often. After committing the act, he would warn me against informing anyone about the ordeal,” said the minor, who is the child of Mutinda’s elder brother.

The minor revealed that her grandfather began defiling her in 2020.

“Recently, he called me to his house and asked me: ‘have you ever been [sexually] penetrated? I told him: ‘what do you mean by penetration?’ He responded by saying: ‘come to my bedroom I demonstrate to you what I exactly mean’. I was with my elder sister at the time. My grandfather, thereafter, sent my sister to the shop to buy sweets before asking me to join him in his bedroom, where he defiled me for three consecutive days,” said the girl.

The child’s mother -- who works away from Kaani Village alongside her husband -- said she had noticed that her daughter had developed a habit of withdrawing from her relatives, and when she (mother) asked her what the problem was, the minor opened up about being sexually abused by her grandfather and uncle.

The parent took her daughter to Kathiani Level 4 Hospital late Tuesday, where she was examined to establish if she had been sexually exploited.

“We are waiting to receive the doctor’s report so that we can go ahead and lodge a case against the suspects, whom we have arrested and detained at the Kathiani Police Station,” Kathiani Deputy OCPD John Kimathi told K24 Digital.

Should they be arraigned and found guilty of defilement, Kayata and Mutinda could spend at least 20 years in jail as stipulated in Kenya’s Sexual Offences Act 2006.