- In his appeal, Peter claimed that he was wrongly convicted as the charge sheet was defective, that the sentence passed was "inconsistent".
- Judges Asike-Makhandia, Agnes Murgor and Ngenye-Macharia however noted that their mandate in a second appeal is limited to an examination of issues of law only.
Image: FILE
In 2013, MW, as code-named, was only four years old, and like most children her age, was out playing when she met a man who forever changed her life.
It was on April 23, a normal Tuesday for the girl who had gone playing with two other children one of who is codenamed PN.
As the minors went on with their merry day, a man approached them and sent PN to the shops to buy 'ngumu'.
Somehow separating MW and the other child, he led her to a nearby farm where Napier grass had grown, removed her clothes and proceeded to defile her.
When PN came back and called out the girl's name, the man who was later identified as Peter Nailianya, covered her mouth with his hand so that she could not answer.
When he was finished with the vile act, Peter took off but he was not stealth enough as PN saw him.
The boy would then go searching for MW and find her in the farm holding her panties.
MW narrated her ordeal terming it as "bad manners", to the boy shortly before her mother found them.
Questioning their not-so-joyful mood, the children told the woman what had happened and upon examining her daughter, MW's mother found that she indeed had an injury to her vagina.
She took the child to the police station where a P3 form was issued and then to hospital.
A clinical officer examined her and found that MW had been defiled and there was injury on her labia minora and hymen was broken.
Peter was arrested the following day by the Assistant Chief of the area as he was about to be lynched by the public who accused him of defiling the child.
He was charged before the Principal Magistrate's Court in Githunguri where the state produced six witnesses.
In his defence, Peter said he was herdsman and that on the material day he had carried on with his usual duties.
He said he was surprised when he was arrested and charged with the offence.
The trial court convicted and sentenced him to serve imprisonment for life.
Aggrieved, Peter filed an appeal at the High Court, which was dismissed in a judgement delivered on April 20, 2017.
By the time he filed the new appeal at the Court of Appeal, the convict was serving his sentence at Kamiti Maximum Prison.
In his appeal, Peter claimed that he was wrongly convicted as the charge sheet was defective, that the sentence passed was "inconsistent".
He also claimed that his constitutional rights were violated, that the victim's evidence had no probative value and that the prosecution case was not proved to the required standard.
Judges Asike-Makhandia, Agnes Murgor and Ngenye-Macharia however noted that their mandate in a second appeal is limited to an examination of issues of law only.
"The issue whether or not the charge sheet was defective was not raised before the trial court or at the High Court on first appeal and that is a matter of fact which we have no mandate to address here," the judgement reads.
After going through the whole record, the judges noted that they could not see anywhere where Peter's rights to a fair trial were violated.
Further, the court observed that the case that faced the appellant was straight forward and dismissed the appeal.
"The appellant defiled the child and he was properly convicted on the evidence presented by the prosecution. There is no merit in this appeal which we hereby dismiss in its entirety," the judgement adds.
The judgement was delivered on September 22.