Briton Keith Morris' sexual assault victims get justice

British Keith Morris. He was convicted for sexually abusing children in Kenya. PHOTO | COURTESY | NATIONAL CRIME AGENCY

What you need to know:

  • Some of the victims of Mr Keith escapades said he might be a victim of circumstances.
  • Keith was tried in a British court following an investigation by United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA) and Kenyan authorities.

Seated outside her house at Maweni village in Kikambala, Kilifi County, the 33-year-old mother of seven children nodded as I enquired if she knew that Keith Morris, the all-time village mzungu they knew, had been convicted for rape and sexual abuse cases. 

“I have heard people speaking about it since morning in this village. If it is true then blessed be the Lord.  My daughter was defiled by him,” she said. 

The woman knew Mr Keith, the 72-year-old British pensioner, as a good man who strolled the village, cheering with the kids. 

She did not suspect any fishy thing about the mzungu until last year when she received some female visitors who claimed they were from Nairobi and wanted to speak to her daughter. 

“First they asked me if my daughter was learning. I told them she was at a primary school. They headed there,” she said.

BAMBURI

Then the victim (name withheld) was a minor. “The visitors then bought books and school uniforms for my daughter.

"They then questioned her about the British man who used to come and take them out of the village and go with them to various centres in Mombasa before retreating them to his hotel room at a Mombasa hotel.”

“I found later from the school that my daughter had confided to the two women that she indeed was raped by the British man in Bamburi,” she said. 

The victim, in an interview with the Nation at the village, said the old man raped her on many occasions and whenever she insisted that it was wrong, he told her to remain quiet and not to report or say anything on that expedition.

TOUR

“The year was 2016. Mzee Keith used to come and take us. We were many from this village and he would take us around Mombasa city, then go for movies at Nyali Cinemax.

"We would then retreat to his room in one of the hotels in Bamburi. Everyday he would have sex with one of us.

"I did it on many occasions and I cannot remember how many times. I told him what he was doing was wrong but he insisted on doing it, warning me not to report anything over the matter,” the victim said.

She added that the ageing Briton never used condoms in all the times she used to have sex with her.

“I am happy that justice has finally been done. It was a terrible experience,” the young girl said.

BRITISH COURT

But while the victim narrated the ordeal in the hands of the UK pensioner, it emerged that the presence of Mr Keith at the village has been a blessing to some families.

Some of the victims of Mr Keith escapades said he might be a victim of circumstances and that all the crimes levels against him might have been false.

“My girl was one of those who used to accompany Mr Keith to all his surroundings and nothing like that was reported to me as a parent. 

"In fact we had an older person who used to accompany the young lads whenever they were with the Mr Keith,” a father of one of the victims said. 

Keith was tried in a British court following an investigation by United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA) and Kenyan authorities.