GARISSA High Court judge John Onyiego has expressed concern over the increasing cases of defilement in North Eastern.
He said courts in Garissa, Wajir and Mandera have recently been hearing a high number of defilement cases.
Justice Onyiego said many convicted youths were serving long sentences in jail after being found guilty of engaging in the vice.
“This is a very big concern to us as the Judiciary, that most of the youth who are in prison is a result of defiling children below the age of 18 years. It is something that needs to be looked into by all stakeholders,” the judge said.
Speaking in Wajir during a tour of supervision of the lower courts, Onyiego while reiterating the important role played by Maslah – a traditional way of solving disputes and cases – said there were cases that cannot be solved through the mechanism.
“While we really commend the traditional mechanism as a way of solving disputes in the community, I want to reiterate that we have cases like defilement, rape, terrorism, murder, FGM and subjecting young girls to early marriage which should never go through this mechanism because the law does not allow this,” he said.
“We again want to warn community elders against presiding these cases through Maslah because when the law catches up with you then it will be a different story. Let us all protect our girls and not deny them their right to education which is a fundamental right to any human being.”
He said sexual offenders will continue committing more offenses once allowed to go free through the Maslah courts where elders resolve in terms of money compensation to the families of the victims.
Onyiego said they have noted that defilement is often committed when the girls are in the fields looking after the family’s livestock, reiterating the need for parents to take their girls to school to avoid exposing them to such dangers.
“Most of the cases are young girls below 14 years, who were sexually assaulted while herding livestock somewhere where they had no one to protect them. Parents should take the responsibility of taking their young girls to school,” he said.
