Prison authorities yesterday said a woman allegedly wrongly convicted for a sex offence had declined media interviews, citing an assurance by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to have her case reviewed.
The plight of Lydia Achieng, who is incarcerated at Lang’ata Women’s Prison, was brought to light in an interview with Inooro TV, prompting the intervention of the DPP.
“Attached media clip has been brought to the attention of the DPP. Despite the fact that convict was charged during the era of police prosecutors and before the 2010 Constitution, the DPP has directed that an immediate followup be done,” read a statement posted on the official website of the office of the DPP.
For 10 years, Achieng has stayed behind bars, allegedly due to a prosecution technicality in a case she was accused of defilement.
According to her account, at the time of her arrest, she was in a salon, her head under a dryer. Even her mother could not comprehend what had been written in the Occurrence Book. It was the first time she had encountered the word defilement.
“She asked: what is defilement? What does it mean? She was told it meant one has had sex with an underage person. She immediately started screaming,” narrates Achieng.
According to Achieng, a woman identified as Sophie levelled the charges against her. The two, according to her, had had exchanges over a relationship between their two teen charges.
Achieng said an orphaned girl she was taking care of had developed a romantic relationship with Sophia’s son.
The two were in Class Eight studying in different schools but had somehow found a way of spending time together.
Achieng said at the time, she did not consider the relationship a thorny issue. She even consulted her mother, who advised that she speak to the girl and Sophia as well to have a chat with her son on the matter.
She said a year passed without any confrontation between them. Both women had businesses premises in the same building in Kiserian: Achieng used to sell clothes on the ground floor of the building while Sophia operated a bar on the top floor.
It was much later that the topic of the two lovebirds was revisited when the girl dropped by Achieng’s place of work and bumped into Sophia.
She confronted the two teenagers.
“But Rajab said he only borrows books from my girl, and that’s it. That topic was never revisited,” she said.
Achieng said the next time the two met, the accusation was different. This time Sophia claimed that her son was stealing money from her and sharing it with Achieng. She was perturbed.
“That is when I warned my girl. I told her if I ever see her with Rajab, I would beat her up or send her back to the village,” she said, believing the issue had been resolved.
Two weeks later, she said, while in the salon having her hair done, her head under the dryer, Sophia descended on her with plainclothes police officers.
Without explanation, she claimed, she was hurled into the cells and her mother informed that she was in for defilement.
Achieng said she had never been in court before and was ignorant of procedures and, considering she had no lawyer, she was doomed right from the beginning.
“I kept on raising my hand to plead with the magistrate but I was never given a chance to speak. I was told to just say yes or no,” she recalled.
She pleaded not guilty and was remanded. That was 2010. Her case went on for a year. She had no money for bond.
That is how she was forced to spend 10 years in jail for what she did do. That is really painful,