Teacher who defiled pupils to remain in jail as appeal flops

Masese was charged and convicted with three counts of sexual offences.

In Summary
  • Sometime in April 2018, the teacher would call to him PMM, aged eight then, and would insert his finger into her private part.

  • He also did the same to JMM, who was a year older than PMM.

JAILED
JAILED

A teacher is expected to assume the role of a second parent. To protect, teach and just for emphasis, protect.

But this is not what Wilson Mwololo Masesi, a teacher at a school in Makueni did.

Masesi was assigned to Class 3, where he took advantage of and sexually assaulted the young girls he was teaching.

Sometime in April 2018, the teacher would call to him PMM, aged eight then, and would insert his finger into her private part.

He also did the same to JMM, who was a year older than PMM.

He would do this when the children got an answer wrong during Kiswahili or English lessons, and sometimes when he was marking their work.

The children would then report the same to the school headteacher and their parents.

When PMM and JMM were taken to the hospital, the doctor found that their hymens had been broken.

This, the doctor would conclude, was evidence of the assault.

Upon report to the police, an investigation was carried out and Masesi was arrested on April 9, 2018.

He however denied the three charges lodged against him, claiming he had no knowledge of the case.

After determining the prosecution's case, however, the court sentenced him to 10 years for the first count, two years for the second and three years for the third.

The sentences were to run concurrently.

Aggrieved, the man however filed a report at the High Court at Makueni urging the court to consider the period he had spent in jail prior to the sentencing.

He expressed his deep remorse, adding that he was rehabilitated and became an "Ambassador of Christ".

He also prayed for a non-custodial sentence saying he was a widower and his family's sole breadwinner.

After reviewing the facts of the case, Justice C Kariuki found that the sentence imposed by the trial court was appropriate, "if not lenient".

Dismissing the appeal, the judge upheld the conviction but ordered that the sentence run from the date of arrest on April 9, 2018.

The judgement was issued on October 11, 2019.

Months later on April 22, 2022, Masesi moved back to the court before Judge Mumbua Matheka claiming his rights had been violated.

He cited Articles 23, 24 and 25 read together with Article 502 on Probation Offenders Act.

Masesi went on to tell the court that he was an old man to "waste all those years in custody" and was seeking a non-custodial sentence.

The state however opposed the same noting that the man had already had an appeal determined by a court of similar jurisdiction.

It also noted that the period spent in custody pending the hearing and determination of the case had been considered during the prior appeal.

In determining the later appeal, Justice Matheka noted this and dismissed Masese's prayer for revision of the sentence.

On the issue of alleged rights violation, the judge said there was no evidence adduced to show the same.

The judge stated that the orders sought were a further appeal disguised as a petition for criminal revision.

The orders, she said, could only come from a superior court.

In the judgement dated November 17, Justice Matheka dismissed the same.

Masese will continue to serve the sentence or appeal the same to the court of appeal.

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