Man, wife arrested for ‘turning neighbour’s teenage daughter into prostitute’

By , K24 Digital
On Wed, 22 Apr, 2020 14:19 | 2 mins read
26-year-old woman arrested for forcing her 4-year-old stepson to eat faeces
Police cuffs. PHOTO/Courtesy

Police in Lunga Lunga, Kwale County have arrested a middle-aged couple for allegedly luring their neighbour’s 13-year-old daughter into prostitution.

The girl’s father told K24 Digital that his daughter, a Class Four pupil, went missing from home in late-December 2019, and subsequent attempts to trace her whereabouts bore no fruit.

The distressed father said he was later told by his daughter’s teacher that his neighbours -- a man and his wife -- had taken in the girl and turned her into a commercial sex worker.

“Yesterday (Tuesday, April 21), I bumped into my child’s teacher, who informed me he had spotted her several times at my neighbour’s compound. At 4pm, I went to the said-couple’s house and found my girl,” the father said.

The shocked teenager disclosed to her father that the neighbours, Mwalewa Kombe and his wife identified only as Chizi, had rented her a room in the estate, where she would sleep with men at a fee.

“She said the couple would, thereafter, take all the money she was paid by men in exchange for sex,” said the minor’s father.

The livid parent went to Lunga Lunga Police Station and reported the matter.

Police went to Kombe’s house and arrested him alongside his wife, Chizi.

Lunga Lunga Deputy County Commissioner Josphat Biwott told K24 Digital that investigations into the allegations have commenced.

“We are also hunting a famous businessman who regularly sought sex from the girl at a fee. He went into hiding on learning that we had arrested Kombe and his spouse,” said Biwott.

Meanwhile, the 13-year-old girl is still being held in custody at Lunga Lunga Police Station.

Child prostitution: What the law says

Section 15 of Kenya’s Sexual Offences Act 2006 criminalises acts such as child prostitution, which include the procuring of, or permitting children under the age of 18 “to be sexually abused, or to participate in any form of sexual activity, or in any obscene or indecent exhibition or show”.

“[Such a person] commits the offence of benefiting from child prostitution and is liable upon conviction to imprisonment for a term of not less than ten years,” says the law.

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