- She kicked the door open only for the girl to scamper for safety and the man pretend to be a sleep
- The judges said the man deserved no mercy because he exploited the innocence of his own child left under his care
Image: FILE
L H A was left to care for his two children; daughter aged 11 and another one aged six when his wife was admitted in a hospital with their third child.
But the father who is a primary school teacher, exploited the absence of his wife and forced his eldest daughter to repeatedly commit incest with him. The wife stayed with their sick child in hospital for two weeks.
Like 40 days of a thief, she would one day bust the husband right in the act in their bedroom. On the fateful day, the wife had returned from hospital and had gone back to her job as househelp in the neighborhood.
She had come home from work and did not find the man and the daughter, only to got to the bedroom and observe the man, (without his knowledge) undress himself and the daughter, apply petroleum jelly to their private parts before engaging in defilement.
She kicked the door open only for the girl to scamper for safety and the man pretend to be a sleep.
The wife then reported the matter to her brother-in-law. It was in June 2017.
The man was then arrested and remained in custody until October 2017 when his case formally started.
He denied the charges and said he was being framed.
Prosecution charged him with incest and a second count of committing indecent acts with a minor. He was later convicted and sent to life in jail.
His defense was that his wife had become adulterous and that while their little child was sick, he did not know who paid the hospital bill.
He said his wife had become hostile towards him after he reported her to the council of elders.
At the High Court, he complained that his defense was not considered by the magistrate who he said was biased.
He also said his wife’s ‘unbelievable’ tales were accepted despite him challenging them.
At the court of appeal, the man sustained the complaints, claiming his innocence. He said the sentence imposed on him was excessive and harsh.
The three-judge bench dismissed all the grounds of appeal on conviction and only agreed with him that the punishment was excessive and high handed.
The judges said the man deserved no mercy because he exploited the innocence of his own child left under his care and violated her in the most horrific manner. They handed him 30 years.
“We are satisfied that the sentence imposed upon the appellant was excessive in the circumstances and that his appeal against sentence succeeds. Accordingly, we set aside the sentence of life imprisonment,” they said in a judgement dated November 10.
“Considering the age of the complainant, the fact the appellant took advantage of the absence of his wife to commit the offence, we are convinced that the appellant is undeserving of the minimum sentence prescribed under Section 20 (1) of the Sexual offences Act. We substitute the sentence of life imprisonment with sentence of 30 years’ imprisonment.
"The sentence should be computed from the date of sentence in the lower court, and to take into account the period the appellant spent in custody during the pendency of his trial between June 19, 2017 to October 2, 2017, which was the date of sentence.”