Nine of 10 defilement cases in Coast done by close relatives, neighbours

Most defilement cases at the Coast are committed by relatives, neighbours or other trusted individuals known to the victim, court records show. [iStockphoto]

The recent jailing of a young man for 20 years in prison for defiling a classmate underscores the legal recognition that children are vulnerable to exploitation by individuals in positions of trust.

In his verdict, Justice Benjamin Njoroge of Kwale Court said that grooming minors by adults, including relatives and family friends, before exploiting them was an offence under the Sexual Offences Act.

The convict, Hassan Athuman, coerced a 15-year-old female classmate to sleep with him. Importantly, from most court verdicts, it's apparent that defilement often occurs within trusted relationships, not by strangers.

An analysis done by The Standard in recent cases 10 convictions of defilement have been upheld by the High Court and appellate court in the month of July alone in Mombasa, Kwale and Malindi courts.

According to a national crime breakdown report, defilement accounted for approximately 3,360 reported cases between January and April 2026 alone.

The defilement cases are predominantly recorded in the Western and Coastal regions, with Kilifi and Mombasa counties having the highest conviction rates.

In both convictions, the perpetrators were known to the minors either by blood or proximity.

In another case in Mombasa, Ediyson Abdallah defiled his seven-year-old niece inside Shimo La Tewa prison precincts, where his cousin, a prison warder, had hosted him and left him with the children.

Abdallah will be cooling the rest of his life behind Shimo La Tewa, the very gates he used to watch inmates gaze through in their striped zebra-print uniforms. The Abdallah incident casts the fears that, often, the person preying on your child is closer to home than you can imagine.

Abdallah betrayed the trust bestowed by his cousin to look after his children, aged six and nine. He defiled the niece who was rescued by the neighbours, who witnessed the act by peeping through the plywood walls of their prison houses after she screamed in pain.

Justice Nabil Orina upheld the life sentence handed to Abdallah by Shanzu Chief Magistrate Anthony Mwicigi.

Japhet Mogere, another convict, will equally be serving a life sentence for defiling and impregnating his own 16-year-old sister despite having a wife. Justice Anne Okutoyi upheld the sentence handed to Mogere by Principal Magistrate Mugendi Nyaga in 2024.

Mogere’s sister said that his brother would sneak on her while his wife was away and have sex with her for over a year. Mogere gave her sister Sh3,000 to abort the pregnancy, but it was unsuccessful and was later noted by her teachers, who reported Mogere.

Ali Odoyo will be serving life imprisonment for defiling an 11-year-old child who was his neighbour. Odoyo lured the said child, MK and her friend NK with Sh20 and proceeded to defile them at Lenda in the Tana River.

MK said that after the incident and a payment of Sh20, Odoyo asked them to return the next day, where they were defiled again. It was MK’s teacher who noticed her funny walking style, and upon inquiry, she opened up, leading to the arrest of Odoyo.

Odoyo, in his defence, said he was set up following a land boundary dispute with the minor’s family, a fact that was dismissed by the courts.

However, the High Court and appellate court dismissed Odoyo’s appeal and upheld the life sentence slapped on him.

For 32-year-old Amani Rua, he preyed on his best friend’s daughter, aged 15 years old, and impregnated her between January and March 2025 in Kilifi County.

Justice Francis Kyambia upheld the 20-year sentence handed to Rua by Kaloleni Resident Magistrate Rita Amwayi.

“The appellant (Rua) was a friend to the complainant’s father. He was aged 32 years and preyed on his friend’s daughter, who was 15 years old. According to the pre-sentence report, it is reported that the victim relocated. She also became pregnant and gave birth. The appellant betrayed the trust the complainant’s father had in him. This is an aggravating factor. In the circumstances, I have no reason to disturb the sentence imposed by the trial court,” said Justice Kyambia.

Elijah Murimi will equally be spending 25 years in jail after an 11-year-old minor identified him as the person who defiled her as she headed to buy Pampers from a local shop in Kaloleni, Kilifi County.

Justice Joseph Biomdo upheld Principal Magistrate Ivvy Wasike’s 25-year sentence slapped on Murimi, who allegedly grabbed the minor as she headed to the shop and, with the help of his friend, covered her mouth and defiled her in an abandoned house.

The second perpetrator who helped Murimi escaped justice because the minor did not see him after he ran away before she could see his face.

In his judgement declining to review the life sentence on Tom Wanyama, who defiled a 10-year-old, Justice Orina said that defilement leaves a lifetime of trauma on victims, and releasing the perpetrators into society only retraumatises the victims.

“He preyed on a 10-year-old child who carries the trauma for the rest of her life. Taken as a whole, and especially considering the magnitude of the offence committed and the tender age of the victim, the applicant's objectives of punishment have not been met, merely seven years since he was arrested. Releasing the applicant back to society early would be a dismissal of the trauma he occasioned the victim and will send a wrong message that the judicial system has failed the victim,” said Justice Nabil.

In the recent case, Justice Njoroge heard that Hassan Athuman coerced slept with the minor in 2022. The exact age of Athuman was not stated in court but was regarded as a young male adult.

The convict was well known to the minor identified as FLH. Athuman publicly professed his love to sleep with her. FLH and Athuman were his friend, neighbour and classmate, and he convinced her to sleep with him.

Justice Benjamin Njoroge went ahead to uphold the 20-year sentence handed to Athuman by the then Kwale Principal Magistrate Rita Amwayi, saying that although there was no violence during the incident, a minor cannot consent to a sexual act.

“The victim’s description of the events tends to show an older young man professing love to her and leading her to have sexual intercourse. The law is clear that a minor cannot consent to a sexual act. It matters not that love language was used to induce the victim to give in,” said Justice Njoroge.

The judge said that the law protects the innocence of a child, be it a boy or a girl, from sexual advances, and the law recognises that a child can be groomed to sexual acts by people she or he looks up to and trusts.

According to Wamunyu Law Courts Head of Station Senior Resident Magistrate Pascal Nabwana, 95 per cent of defilement cases are perpetrated by people who are close to and known to the victim, while the five per cent are random cases where children have been abandoned without supervision.

Nabwana says that 95 per cent is occasioned by familiarity, opportunity and secrecy. However, according to the magistrate who served in Mpeketoni, Lamu, most of the defilement cases go unreported.

“There are many cases of defilement that are not reported because of that familiarity and closeness kind of setting. Many of the victims are defiled by their cousins, uncles, aunties and fathers, and they will not report,” said Nabwana.

Nabwana attributed cultural and economic factors to the defilement cases in some parts of Kilifi County.

He said that in some households in Kilifi, hunger and poverty have led some parents to send their children to look for food and even set them up to sleep with foreigners for money.

“In Kilifi, I know of cases where people force young girls to sleep with old foreigners for money, and sometimes it is because of lack of food, and girls are told to go and fend for food outside. If you tell a 12-year-old girl to go and look for food instead of going to school and they are actually hungry, you do not know who they will meet there,” said Nabwana.

He said that in some instances girls and boys from dysfunctional but well-to-do families may encounter psychological influence and decide to seek comfort from older women or men, leading to defilement and sodomy.

Nabwana said that this kind of act has a ripple effect on the victim, who at times may become sexually perverted in the future because they have learnt early that you cannot be protected and the people who defile or sodomise you are those close to you.

The magistrate said if not counselled early, the victims will lack safety nets and security to guide them, and so they may perpetrate other perverted acts in the future on victims younger or older than them.

“It is easy to say this lady is very loose or this boy is a homosexual, but when you look at the history, you will find they are victims of defilement and sodomy,” said Nabwana.

The magistrate said the victims relive the trauma as they have to go back and live with or close to the people who defiled or sodomised them.

“In rural settings, a girl will be told, ' You cannot jail your uncle because it is a small setting and an extended family. So the victim puts up with the trauma without counselling and still sees the perpetrator day in, day out,” said Nabwana.

He said that in some circumstances, the victims end up having strained marriages with their spouses if not counselled.

“You will find those people who marry men and women who were victims of sodomy and defilement confess that it was a difficult marriage because if you are not taken for counselling and taken care of mentally, psychologically and emotionally early, it will affect you very badly, and you will not have respect for authority or boundaries or be very recoiled, not wanting anyone to touch you," said Nabwana.

He said the victims are further traumatised in the justice system in the process of recording statements at police stations and hospitals and testifying in court and being cross-examined by lawyers in some cases.

He said the victims need counselling for a period of time because the act leaves a permanent mark on their heads, and they need to accept the situation, which is very hard.

“So you have destroyed that girl or boy’s life by an action that lasted less than 10 minutes. Some cannot even continue in the same church or school over stigma,” said Nabwana.

The magistrate recommended that there should be counselling before, during the case and after.

He said that all institutions, including the courts, should have a counsellor on standby for any case of defilement and sodomy.

“In a rural setting it is even worse. How do you tell a parent to take their child for counselling far away when they have to choose between a meal and fare?" said Nabwana.

He said the prisons are full of people convicted of defilement, with some saying they have been convicted wrongly while others admit to committing the offence, and the ripple effect is crazy.

Counselling psychologist Allan Lawrence said that the defilers exploit the proximity, secrecy and trust of the child.

Lawrence, who is also a relationship coach, author, and lead trainer at The Love Banquet, said the reason the perpetrator is often a close relative, neighbour, family friend or trusted community member is that children are naturally taught to trust familiar people.

“Offenders understand and often engage in what psychologists call grooming, a deliberate process of building trust with both the child and the family before gradually crossing boundaries. They exploit proximity, secrecy and the assumption that "someone we know would never do such a thing", said Lawrence.

He raised a concern about how offenders often hide behind respectability under the guise of being either religious leaders, teachers, relatives, neighbours or other trusted figures.

“This is why parents should prioritise teaching children about body safety, consent, appropriate and inappropriate touch and creating a home where children can report uncomfortable experiences without fear or shame,” said Lawrence.

He said that one of the biggest misconceptions is that child sexual abuse is simply about lust, while to them, it is primarily about power, access, opportunity and exploitation of vulnerability.

He said that although sexual attraction may be involved in some cases, many perpetrators are driven by a desire to dominate, manipulate and control as opposed to normal sexual desire.

Lawrence said that there is no single profile of an offender because some individuals may have underlying psychiatric conditions, including disorders involving sexual interest in children, which require specialised clinical assessment.

However, many offenders do not meet the criteria for a mental disorder, and instead, they make calculated choices, rationalise their behaviour, exploit opportunities and repeatedly violate boundaries.

He said a mental condition should never be used to excuse criminal responsibility.

“Several factors can contribute to offending behaviour, including poor impulse control, distorted beliefs about children, unresolved trauma, addiction to pornography in some cases, antisocial personality traits, a history of abuse and environments where accountability is weak. However, these are risk factors, not excuses. Millions of people experience trauma or struggle with addictions and never abuse a child,” said Lawrence.

He said that protecting children requires more than warning them about strangers and demands vigilance within our homes, families, schools, churches and communities.

“We must shift from asking, "Can we trust this person?" to asking, "Are there clear safeguards, healthy boundaries and accountability measures in place?" Child protection is a collective responsibility,” said Lawrence.