A 9 nine year old girl’s life was never going to be the same again on the evening of March 5 at around 8 pm when her mother left for the market and she for a green-grocer’s shop barely a minutes walk from their home.
It was a normal Tuesday evening when a Standard Four pupil’s life changed completely in the hands of her neighbours.
The family of three; mother and her daughters resides in Njiru, Nairobi, a low income area where police receive hundreds of defilement cases especially during the mid-term break.
On this particular evening, as the Standard Four girl ran her errands, she was met by two of her male neighbours who tied a cloth around her mouth and took her into their home.
One man, she told the Standard, held her down while the other did despicable things to her.
Moments later, the men let her go but with a warning.
“They put a knife to my neck and threatened to kill me if I told anyone,” she is quoted by the daily.
She did not utter a word to her mother but when she found the courage to, confided in a female neighbour to whom one of the men confessed to defiling the girl.
Her mother, a hard-working woman trying to make ends meet, found out 10 days later. The girl, she says, complained of pain in her private parts and upon take a closer look, there was pus oozing out of her genitals.
A medical report obtained from the Mama Lucy Hospital indicated that there indeed was forced penetration but the hymen did not rapture.
A couple of days later the mother reported the matter at Kayole Police Station. The men would later be arrested, arraigned in court and released on a Sh300,000 cash bail.
It does however remain unclear whether the men made bail or are still remanded at the Industrial Area prison.
The mother also noted that it has been tough as they have been receiving death threats ever since her daughter’s assailants were nabbed.
Families of the suspects have also been reaching out to the woman promising to payback money spent on medical expenses as long as she drops the charges.
“They told me they will give me money to reimburse me for the expenses I incurred on medical procedures.
I don’t want their money. I have struggled to raise this girl and no amount of money can justify what they did,” she said.
The case, was mentioned at the Makadara Law Courts and the hearing set to begin in August.