A Meru court has ruled that two Swahili teachers who were sentenced to serve 17 years for drugging and defiling a nine-year-old were wrongfully convicted.
In her judgement, Justice Mwanaisha Shariff said Paul Njeru and Nicholas Mithika should never have been sent to jail since the evidence produced before the lower court was inconsistent.
The two had appealed the decision by the magistrate court which found them guilty of defiling their nine-year-old pupil.
The girl in her testimony had told court that on June 2 2016 one her Kiswahili teachers told her to take a book to the class and when she got there, one of the two put a handkerchief on her nose and she blacked out then they defiled her.
She claimed that the sexual assault happened for several days after that until she told her mother who reported to the police.
Justice Shariff poked holes at the evidence of the girl and her mother saying there were contradictions in their testimony.
The court also considered the evidence produced by the teachers showing one of them was employed on June 2 2016 which is the date when the offense allegedly took place.
The Judge wondered whether it was possible that by the end of his first day at the school, if the teacher could have known the minor.
One of their fellow teachers who came to testify in their defence also helped in their acquittal as she testified that she was on duty that day and never saw anything out of the ordinary.
The also noted that there were no injuries noted on the girl’s genitals which casts doubt whether she was defiled by two men.
Judge Shariff also questioned how the parents of the girl never noticed someone amiss with their daughter for close to a month since the incident.
“It is unfathomable bearing in mind the victims age, how was it not possible for the mother and father to notice something amiss for the entire period that their daughter was allegedly defiled,” the judge posed.
The judge ruled that the trial magistrates finding that the two were guilty was erroneous and was not supported by any evidence.
She allowed the appeal by the teachers and quashed their conviction further also setting aside the 17-year sentence thereby setting them free
