Cleric jailed 75 years for defiling minors, transmitting HIV

The Kisumu Law Courts as pictured on March 27, 2015. PHOTO | TONNY OMONDI | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Joseph Agutu Obala was convicted of four counts at a Kisumu court – three of defilement and one of infecting the minor with the virus.
  • Each of the defilement offences earned Bishop Obala sentences of 20 years while the latter crime earned him 15 years in jail.
  • In his defence, the clergyman claimed the charges were fabricated and that the girls used his phone, while he was away, to communicate with their boyfriends.
  • Lawyer Steve Akoko said he will appeal the whole judgement and check whether there was full compliance with the law during the trial.

A clergyman was on Tuesday sentenced to 75 years in prison for defiling three minors and deliberately transmitting the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to one of them.

Mr Joseph Agutu Obala was convicted of four counts at a Kisumu court – three of defilement and one of infecting the minor with the virus.

APPEAL

Each of the defilement offences earned Bishop Obala sentences of 20 years while the latter crime earned him 15 years in jail.

He will serve the sentences consecutively, Resident Magistrate Pauline Mbulika said.

Mr Obala committed the crimes between April and July 2016 while living with the girls at an Orphanage in Kisumu.

Two of the girls were 15 years old at the time while one was 14. The cleric was also accused of touching them inappropriately on many occasions.

In his defence, the clergyman claimed the charges were fabricated and that the girls used his phone, while he was away, to communicate with their boyfriends.

He added that there was no proof that he is the one who got one of the victims infected with HIV.

Lawyer Steve Akoko said he will appeal the whole judgement and check whether there was full compliance with the law during the trial.

“The bishop is a layman so he could have missed procedures or technicalities during the trial," he said.

PAST CASES

In Mombasa County last Thursday, a 51-year-old man was sentenced to 30 years in prison for repeatedly defiling and impregnating a minor.

Mr Ngoloma Kakenyi Mulinge was found guilty of defiling a 12-year-old, Standard Four pupil in 2016.

While reading the judgment, Shanzu Senior Principal Magistrate Diana Mochache said Mr Mulinge deserved no mercy.

In Rongo sub-county, Migori County, a 19-year-old man was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of defiling an eight-year-old girl.

Julius Odhiambo Otieno was sentenced on December 12 for the crime committed at Kamreri village in South Kamagambo.

While delivering his judgment, Rongo magistrate Raymond Lang'at said the accused acted intentionally.

In April, a report by human rights activists indicated that more than 1,208 children might have been defiled in Kisumu County in the previous 15 months.

The incidents reportedly took place between January 2017 and March 2018. Out of the 1,208 children, five of the victims were living disabilities.