By Okong’o Oduya
Busia County , Kenya: A family from Murende in Matayos, Busia County is seeking justice after their class six daughter was raped and later on killed. Her body was dumped along the roadside last Tuesday night.
According to the father to the deceased, they learnt that their missing daughter was dead when they were informed by neighbors about their daughter’s body lying lifeless and naked alongside the road on Wednesday morning.
Reports indicate that they realized their daughter who is 15 years, a class 6 pupil at Murende primary school was missing, they didn’t bother to look for her because they knew the girl had visited their local pastor which was not her first time.
“I knew the girl was missing in the evening, but I thought she had gone to the pastor’s place where she frequently attends prayers. This was not the first time, leaving the house to visit the pastor in the evening; I knew she will come back,” he said.
They later came to learn that the ‘Shamba boy’ 35 years old they had employed was the suspect and he was on the run but was found by villagers who handed him to the authorities.
Ms. Janefer Marenga, their neighbor says they found the young girls body dumped alongside the road on Wednesday morning when going to the farm before informing the parents.
She said, there was no signs of struggled at the scene an indication that the girl was killed elsewhere before her body was dragged to the location to conceal the evidence.
Peter Oluoch an uncle to the deceased, challenged the parents for reluctance even after realizing that the girl was missing in the evening they didn’t take an initiative to look for her only to find her body in the morning.
“The girl disappeared in the evening at 7:30 and never returned back, that didn’t worry the parents. They went ahead to sleep only to be informed in the morning about their daughter’s body to be found in the morning.
“To avoid such cases in future I am calling upon the parents to be responsible enough in taking care of their children. If parents of this child took initiative to look for her she would be alive today,” he said.
He further questioned what the girl was doing outside at night even after the government declared no going out as from 7pm.
“We all know the dusk to dawn curfew is effective, what was the girl doing out past 7:30 pm? From the reports it is believed that the family eats together in the evening, how come that day, parents proceeded with their super without the girl,” he paused.
He further challenged local administration and security apparatus from the region in what he termed as failing to carry out night patrols during the curfew time. He blamed the insecurity in the village as the reason behind such killings.
Mary Makokha, human right defender and director rural economic empowerment (REEP) in Butula questioned why the parents of the late allowed her to go out at night by assuming she was going to visit their local pastor.
“Areas such as Rakite are so notorious in early marriages and early pregnancies among young girls and it is associated with parents and guardians neglecting their parental responsibilities, like in this case, even after the parents realizing that their daughter was missing they didn’t bother to look for her, they say she had gone to visit their pastor” she noted with a lot of concern.
She blamed the parents for failing to be vigilant on the person they hired as herds boy, adding that the man had murdered someone where he was working before.
According to her, last year a girl in Bujumba village in Butula sub County was killed in such manner, adding that of late rape cases are on rise compared to previous years.
However she called upon the county leadership to provide a safe house to accommodate sexually abused girls within the county.
“Lack of safe house in the county is worsening things in the county especially those that have been raped and sodomized, they are traumatized and all they need is somewhere safe.
It will be good for county leadership both in elective offices and other organizations to come together and find a solution on where to keep these girls.
The last case we had, we were forced to relocate the girl to Murang’a after she was raped by the father and conceived.”
Elsewhere a primary teacher at Kwang’amor primary school in Teso South and a doctor from Bukembe market in Bungoma County are in police custody after the teacher impregnated a standard eight pupil and went for doctor’s services to terminate the pregnancy.
According to the grandparents of the girl, the girl ran away from her parent’s home when she realized she was pregnant to stay with them on 26th of April.
Through the help of officer from children’s Department from Teso South they found out that the girl was in constant communication with the teacher and agreed to meet to do abortion in one of the private clinic at Bukembe market in Bungoma County, before they were arrested by police officers.
They will be arraigned in court as soon as the investigations are completed.
Busia County continues to record high numbers of defilement and rape cases in recent times. These cases have increase during the covid-19 period.
