A 45-year-old man identified as Stephen Kemboi has been sentenced to life imprisonment after he was found guilty of defiling an eight-year-old girl.

The middle-aged man appeared before Resident Magistrate Edwin Mulochi on Tuesday and is said to have committed the heinous offence on January 25, 2022, at around 4 pm at Tebei village in Baringo South Sub County.

Kemboi had been charged with two counts of defilement contrary to Section 8(1) as read with Section 8(2) of the Sexual Offences Act No. 3 of 2006, with an alternative charge of committing an indecent act with a girl contrary to Section 11 of the Sexual Offences Act of 2006, and also, without lawful excuse, uttered words threatening to kill the father of the minor with a panga, an offence that he denied.

The probation report, he claimed, was biased against him since it said that the community deemed him unable to receive the non-custodial punishment he had pleaded with the court for.

The minor's father, who saw the perpetrator carry out the horrible act, testified in court that when he returned home from work at 4 p.m. and inquired about his daughter's whereabouts, his wife told him that Kemboi, a neighbour, had contacted her to deliver mangoes.

He went seeking her at the residence of the offenders, where he discovered the offenders in a corn shop with his daughter lying on the ground after the minor's mother informed him that the minor had overstayed for an hour.

When he questioned him, the culprit strangled him while threatening to kill him with a panga.

The minor was given the chance to flee during the altercation and ran home to tell her mother about what happened.

In contrast, the minor's father was given the chance to flee to a nearby thicket as the offender pursued him when he entered a different room to look for a panga.

According to the victim's statement to the court, the offender contacted her after she got home from school that day to offer her three mangoes and then instructed her to go inside the maize store and lie down, where he did the horrific deeds. The criminal is a neighbour.

She added that it was the offender's third defilement of her.

The minor's mother claimed that when her daughter ran from the corn store, she told her that she had been defiled and hurt by a well-known individual.

 This caused the mother to go to the local police station, where they were immediately told to get medical attention.

“I received a report from my daughter that she had been defiled by one Kemboi, and upon examining her, I found that she had injuries and her stomach was swollen. I immediately took her to Tedei Health Centre, where she was examined by a doctor,” she said.

The mother stated that the child was referred to Baringo County referral hospital for specialized treatment before reporting the matter to the police.