KISUMU, August 5 – A man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after he was found guilty of defiling his ten-year-old stepdaughter.
James Abongo was proven to have committed the vile act on the minor, as her younger sister watched, on October 18, 2007.
The Kisumu Principal Magistrate Ann Onginjo said in her ruling that Abongo infringed on the minor’s virginity rights, when he committed the offence in Nyahera – on the outskirts of Kisumu town.
The minor recounted her ordeal at the hands of her stepfather, after the court certified her competent to adduce evidence.
She testified that Abongo committed the offence while her mother was away, attending a funeral.
During trial, the court heard that Abongo, who is a wife inheritor, had been accused of several sexual offences at the Nyahera area.
Abongo, in his mitigation, told the court that he was HIV positive and could not survive the harsh conditions in jail.
It is unclear whether the child is infected with the killer virus.
Elsewhere, a 14-year-old boy drowned in a dam in Karia village in Kirinyaga district.
Daniel Muriuki was playing with two of his brothers when a fisherman chased them from the dam.
Scared, they jumped into the water and swam to the other side, but unfortunately Muriuki got stuck in the silt and drowned.
According to the area Deputy Police Chief Patrick Oduma, the boy’s body floated to the surface the following day, was retrieved and then taken to the Kerugoya Mortuary.
In a related story, Oduma said a decaying body was found floating in a rice canal in Kirinyaga’s Njoga village.
The police officer said the body – thought to be of a 45-year-old man – had been taken to the Kerugoya Mortuary for identification.
The man is suspected to have been killed and dumped in the rice farm.
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