A Nakuru court sentenced a Muslim cleric to ten years imprisonment on Monday for facilitating the trafficking of a 15-year-old orphaned girl to a Lebanese in Nairobi for sex tourism in 2011.
Sheikh Ali Samoja allegedly facilitated trafficking of 15 years old girl to Nairobi in 2011 so that she can be used by a Lebanese Sayyid Muktadha who later fled the country.
The trial was presided by Senior Resident Magistrate Judicaster Nthuku, who ruled said that the trial of Sheikh Ali Samoja could have been among the many subjecting young Kenyan girls to sex slavery.
"It has been in the media lately how travel agencies process travel documents to all persons to travels to Arabic countries where they are turned into slaves and even death," Nthuku said
The convict, Samoja, then head of Bilal Muslim Mission Centre in Nakuru and father of three daughters was charged with trafficking the minor where she was allegedly defiled by Sayyid Muktadha before he fled the country.
The complainant who is a minor said in her testimony that she was violently defiled by the Lebanese. "Her complaints felt on deaf ears as Samoja did nothing after he received the allegations and thus he had something to hide," the court said
In her ruling, the Magistrate noted that under section 14 of the Sexual Offenses Act, a person including juristic person who makes or organizes any travel arrangements for or on behalf of any other person within or outside Kenya with intention of the commission of sexual offenses whether it is or not committed is guilty of sex child trafficking.
Nthuku ruled that the Prosecutor, Gerald Nyongesa, proved that the accused person facilitated the travel arrangements of the minor where she ended up being defiled.
The Magistrate then disputed Samoja's defense that Muslims do not commit such sexual offenses saying perverts are everywhere including mosques and churches and such defense does not hold any water.
‘I accept my fate if this was what to come for my assistance to this girl. I assisted her sister the same way to progress her studies. God will be my witness during judgement. My three daughters will suffer my absence," Samoja said