A police officer will spend 15 years in prison for sexually abusing a child, the Court of Appeal in Kisumu ruled.
A five judge bench set aside a petition by Enose Makohka who was convicted of defiling a 17-year old girl twice in 2010.
Judges David Maranga, Daniel Masinga and Gatembu Kairu shot down Makohka’s second attempt at life outside jail when they upheld a decision by Kisumu’s resident Judge Hillary Chemitei to throw out the petition.
The jail term was first handed to him by a Homa Bay magistrate court after he was found guilty of the sexual offence which attracts a minimum penalty of 15 years behind bars.
“The result is that the appeal fails in its entirety and is hereby dismissed,” read the judgment by the bench. It was delivered on Friday.
The judges ruled that the decisions by the two lower courts had strong basis and were supported by the evidence given.
They said findings by the courts were concurrent and they thus could not interfere.
Mr Makokha who did not have a lawyer as he moved to the Appellant Court argued before a three-judge bench that the High Court failed to appreciate that the offence was not proved that actual defilement, age of the girl and a positive identification of him as the offender were not established.
But the minor’s lawyer, Mr E Ketoo challenged that a doctor’s report showed that she was defiled and that those who were in her company on the fateful night identified him in the trial court.
The law enforcer was presented in the trial court and accused that on December 10, 2010 at about 11pm he arrested the minor, her elder sister (both of whose identities were protected by the court) and one Bernard Ochieng’ described as either the minor’s father, uncle or cousin.
In their testimonies the three, said they were headed home from church when they met the AP officer who arrested them for lacking national identifications (IDs) and for loitering.
He took them to Sena Chief’s Camp in Mbita, Homa Bay County.
At the camp, he is said to have locked the minor’s sister in a house alone and attempted to defile her.
He later took the minor to his house within the camp and defiled her.
“According to the minor, the appellant took her to his house within the camp where, after closing the door, he pushed her onto a bed, undressed her and defiled her twice before releasing her at 6am the following morning,” the 10-page Court of Appeal ruling read.