A police Constable has been sentenced to 40 years in jail for defiling a minor at Gatundu police station, Kiambu County.
The 15-year-old girl was held in custody at the station for what the police stated in court as “need of care and protection.”
Her mother had handed her over to the police the night before the incident.
Independent Policing Oversight Authority initiated an investigation on own motion after the disgraceful incident happened on January 13, 2018.
The former Constable of police, Paul Kipkoech Rotich, was found guilty contrary to the Sexual Offences Act, in a judgement delivered at Gatundu Law Courts by Principal Magistrate H.M. Ng’ang’a yesterday, February 2, 2021.
The prosecution lined up 11 witnesses, including two IPOA Investigators.
Besides taking witness statements, the IPOA investigators told the court how they visited the girl’s home in Gatundu where the juvenile lived with her parents, where they collected and preserved crucial evidence that was later presented as exhibits in court.
The exhibits – a pair of pants – that the girl wore on the material day were preserved at IPOA laboratories in Nairobi before being examined at the Government Chemist.
The court noted “The exhibits were collected a few days after the alleged offence and kept in the IPOA laboratory. The collection, packaging, sealing, labelling, storage and preservation of the said exhibits were clearly explained ensuring that they were not contaminated. “I therefore find that the integrity of the exhibits remained intact,” said the Magistrate.
In passing the judgement, the Court reminded the accused officer of IPOA’s statutory authority.
“The two officers (investigators) work at IPOA, an independent police oversight body with a statutory mandate of investigating complaints against police officers. I find that there is no possibility that they conspired with any police officers at the Gatundu police station to frame the accused,” according to the Judgment.
In his defence, the disgraced officer had claimed that the charges against him were trumped up.
The Magistrate concluded: “I find that the prosecution has proved beyond reasonable doubt that the accused committed the offence he is charged with.”