A man has been jailed for 30 years for defiling his six-year-old daughter.
The 50-year-old father was sentenced by the High Court in Mombasa.
This comes after he petitioned against the initial ‘lifetime sentence’ inflicted by a magistrate’s court in 2019.
According to justice Anne Ong’injo, the man needed a severe sentence for taking advantage of the minor.
“Life imprisonment is the right punishment for such a brutal and heinous act. However, since a life sentence is ambiguous, I will give a definitive time frame for the appellant to serve 30 years’ imprisonment,” she said.
The man had pleaded with the judge to change the life sentence and set him free.
He said he had been framed by his neighbours due to underlying land issues.
He also added that the trial court did not confirm the age of the child but convicted him on a defective charge sheet.
Justice Ong’injo dropped the arguments, confirming the reason for the sentence was valid as the victim was the man’s daughter.
Ong’injo added that she was a minor who needed protection from her parents.
“The appellant’s appeal has failed and the same is dismissed save for sentence, which is substituted from life imprisonment to 30 years to run from April 2019.”
The man had initially been charged with incest in a Taveta magistrate court.
He was said to have committed the offence on April 26, 2019.
The trial magistrate found him guilty and sentenced him to serve life in prison.
According to court records, the man sexually abused the girl.
He later instructed her to say that she had been attacked by a ghost.
The girl’s brother, however, explained to the court that their father assaulted the minor at night and warned the two against telling anyone what had occurred.
“He told us to say that my sister had been attacked by a ghost.”
By Everlyne Bosibori
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