Wajir Assistant Chief handed 22-year jail term for raping his cousin

Assistant chief in Wajir County will serve 22 years in jail for raping his cousin.[Courtesy ]

An assistant chief in Wajir County will serve 22 years in jail for raping his cousin (FGH) and posting her nudes on their clan WhatsApp group called ADAN FAQA  in 2020

In addition, Kalmoi Ahmed will pay half a million to her cousin as compensation for the trauma she suffered at his hands.

Ahmed, an Assistant Chief of the Arabqermsema location in Wajir County, was charged with rape, indecently touching his cousin’s breasts against her will, and posting her intimate images on a clan WhatsApp group between March 18 2020, and May 22, 2020, in Wajir East Sub-County.

The appellate Court upheld the 22-year sentence and the half-million fine handed to Ahmed by Justice Ali Aroni, who set aside the acquittal granted by Chief Magistrate Cosmus Maundu.

Justices Patrick Kiage, Jamila Mohammed and Murungi Kairaria upheld Justice Aroni's sentence dated June 2, 2022 and ruled that the same was not illegal, harsh or excess.

In dismissing Ahmed’s appeal, the appellate judges  said that Ahmed used his authority as an Assistant Chief and abused the trust bestowed on him by his aunty to violate his cousin.

“Considering the gravity of the offence and the fact that the appellant (Ahmed) used his authority as an assistant chief and abused the trust bestowed upon him by the complainant’s mother to violate the complainant, who is the appellant’s cousin, and the lasting trauma and enduring loss of dignity suffered by the complainant, the sentence passed as well as the sh. 500000 compensation is in our view, appropriate,” said Justice Kiage.

Ahmed had faulted his conviction, holding that the prosecution did not prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.

In his defense, Ahmed alleged that the cousin had a vendetta with him.

However, the appellate judges dismissed the claim questioning why the cousin and his relatives, including uncles, would turn against him after he helped her secure a school.

FGH’s mother had requested Ahmed to assist the daughter to get into secondary school. It is not clear about FGH’s age  but she was an adult despite being in secondary school.

“It is also noteworthy that no evidence of a vendetta or any plausible explanation was proffered by Appellant why FGH whom he had assisted to get admitted at Frontier Secondary School would suddenly turn round, name him as her violator and fabricate a story of rape under a threat of posting of her nude pictures or why her mother PW2 at whose request the Appellant assisted PW1 to get a school or indeed the rest of her relatives would support PW1 to falsely accuse the Appellant of such a grave offence as rape without cause,” said Justice Kiage.

The judges dismissed Ahmed’s defense that her younger cousin sent him nudes and questioned why he decided to retain them in his phone instead of notifying her mother for counselling.

“If indeed the complainant, a schoolgirl, sent her nude picture out of the blue to him as he stated before the trial court, why did he not bring the matter to the attention of PW1’s mother or the school authorities so that the complainant could be guided and counselled? Why retain the photos in his phone and keep mum about it?” questioned Justice Kiage.

Ahmed had confessed to police that he had posted her cousin’s nudes on their family WhatsApp group by mistake.

According to FGH, she was traumatized and forced to flee her home in Wajir to Garissa and then Mombasa after she learnt that her nudes were circulating and had been seen by other girls in a WhatsApp group called Habon Abass Hajj.

She said that when she arrived in Mombasa, her relatives beat her up for being photographed naked and decided to open up about how his cousin blackmailed her to have sex with him.

The magistrate court had questioned the rape allegations, pointing that FGH seemed relaxed and posing when the nudes were taken.

“I do not believe the complainant’s story that she was threatened to pose for those pictures. The complainant’s facial appearance on those pictures is not of a person who is under threat or coercion. The demeanor of the complainant was very poor. She gave contradictory evidence,” said Maundu.

The magistrate in his verdict said that FGH ought to have reported Ahmed to the family since she was not a minor.

 “She should have reported the matter to her relatives taking into account that she is not a minor,” said Maundu.

However, FGH said the pictures were taken when she did not know what was happening after drinking some water given to her by Ahmed, a fact she said made her look at ease, not threatened or fearful.

She said she became threatened after the pictures were taken.

According to the police forensic report, the nude pictures were taken with FGH’s phone by Ahmed, who then forwarded the same to his phone.

The police said that Ahmed also took nude pictures with his phone

The said nudes were taken in FGH’s sister’s house, a second house, and a studio in Wajir.