A 12-year-old girl has accused the police officers at Isebania Police Station in Kenya of locking her up in cells for 6 days to hide evidence of her father who himself is a police officer having defiled her.
A report by Nairobi News said the victim had gone to her father to request for school fees on November 1 at their home in Nyabohanse town when he lured her into his bedroom and had sex with her.
Her father was reportedly a police officer who worked with a senior politician in Migori County before being interdicted from police service.
“I went to see him to collect my fee balance on the instructions of my grandmother with whom I lived. She could not afford Sh13,890 which I owed the school so I went to my father who operates a pub in Nyabohanse town.
“I was cleaning utensils when he came home that morning. He called me to his bedroom as he wanted me to do some shopping for breakfast. I was helpless as he pinned me on his bed and committed the act,” she was quoted as saying in an interview with The Nation.
Thinking that the police were the best people to report to and rightly so, the Standard Five pupil at a private school in Nyabohanse town to file a complaint but she ended up suffering double jeopardy.
“I reported the incident to a female police officer, who called my father and the area chief and tried to persuade me to forgive him,” she narrated.
She was then transferred to Isebania Police Station where she was placed in a cell for six days before she was taken to Nyayo Hospital, where she was tested and given a prescription.
While in the police cell, her father visited her and threatened her to drop the case against her.
Meanwhile, the victim’s grandmother insists that justice must be done.
“When we visited her on the same evening she was arrested, the officer declined to release her, saying the national flag at the station had already been lowered and we were not allowed to see her.
“All we need is justice for the minor. It is said that the police, who ought to have protected her, conspired with the suspect to torment her further.
“The suspect, who should be in custody, walks scot-free and was accessing the girl freely as we were denied any chance to see her,” the old woman lamented.
“The six-day detention was a plot to conceal possible evidence of rape. Even police records and the occurrence book entries were skewed,” she further alleged.
According to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji also confirmed that the case was closed “due to lack of evidence”.
A letter dated November 5 and addressed to the OCS Isebania Police Station, Mr Martin Mwongera, a senior prosecution counsel, called for the termination of the case.
Part of the said letter reads: “… after perusing police files and statements, I find no sufficient evidence to charge the suspect with the said offence.”
