Mother's agony over son's body stuck at Bomet mortuary

The family of a young boy whose remains were exhumed at a children's home in Bomet County run by American missionary-turned-paedophile Gregory Dow is seeking custody of the body.

Daisy Chelangat, mother of James Kipkirui, who died at Dow Children's Home and was buried at the institution without her full consent, is seeking possession of the remains that have been lying at Longisa County Referral Hospital mortuary for the last 21 months.

It is alleged the boy died after choking on food and was hurriedly buried at the orphanage the following day in 2012, despite protests from the mother and a relative. They were, however, overruled by the American.

The body was exhumed on May 30, 2019 following a High Court order issued by former Bomet Resident Judge Martin Muya following an application by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations.

The orphanage, which was located in Kapsiratet Village, Boito ward of Konoin constituency, was closed in September 2017 after the convicted missionary was found sexually abusing one of the girls.

Through Ms Margaret Ruto, a US-based human rights activist and nurse, the family has applied before the High Court in Bomet to have the remains, that have been lying in mortuary for the last 19 months, to be released for re-burial.

"I hereby request that you expedite this matter as my stay in Kenya is limited and I would like to assist the family in giving a decent burial to their son," says Ms Ruto in an affidavit.

Ms Ruto, who is originally from Boito, Konoin constituency in Bomet County but resides in the US as a holder of dual citizenship, has been instrumental in tracking down Dow, having him arrested, prosecuted and convicted for crimes committed in Kenya.

When the matter came up before the High Court on Thursday, Bomet Resident Judge Roselyne Korir was told by children’s officer Duncan Ng'eno that the postmortem report had not been filed and the hearing of the matter was pushed to March 4, this year.

Mr J. Ruto, Senior Chief Boito Location, has written to the children's department confirming that the family wanted to bury the boy’s remains.

In a recent interview, Ms Chelangat, who is from a poor background, said she looked forward to a day when she will be able to decently bury her son.

“Though I do not have land of my own, I look forward to burying the remains in my parents’ home in Kapletundo ward, Sotik Sub-County,” said the single mother of two sets of twins.

Mr Derrick Wawire, a prosecutor at the DPP's office, made the application for exhumation on October 11, 2018 after the DCI accused Dow of "secretly burying the child's body without informing the police, securing a burial permit and a death certificate from registrar of births and deaths".

Justice Muya, in the orders given on March 25, 2019, directed police to keep the exhumed remains in custody of the State pending a report of death to the registrar of deaths and a burial permit granted to the family to perform the burial rites at a place of their choice.

Dr Johansen Oduor, the Chief Government Pathologist, conducted the postmortem on the remains at the children's home and handed over the body to the police for preservation at the mortuary in compliance with the High Court directive.

"We have extracted samples from the body which will be subjected to analysis to facilitate the compiling of a report," said Dr Oduor at the time.

Dr Oduor said in January this year that he had not received the laboratory test results of the postmortem for release to police and the family.

After he was accused of sexually abusing orphan girls at his custody, Dow fled Kenya for the US to avoid arrest and prosecution, but the law caught up with him. He pleaded guilty to the charges on June 16, 2020.

Dow was sentenced to serve 15 years and eight months in prison by a court in the United States of America on February 4 this year after he pleaded guilty to charges of sexually molesting underage girls who were under his care in Kenya.

By the time of his arrest, nine young girls out of 87 who were under his care had repeatedly been defiled and had anti-fertility devices fitted on their bodies to prevent pregnancy.

Ms Mary Rose (Dow’s wife) was in 2017 fined Sh50,000 by a Sotik court in Bomet County after pleading guilty to charges of implanting birth control devices on the girls.

Investigations into the case were jointly conducted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and Anti-Human Trafficking and Child Protection Unit of the Department of Criminal Investigations (DCI) in Kenya.

Mr William McSwain, a US attorney, said when the arrest was made that the suspect had been charged in July 2019 with four counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign county (Kenya) and he pleaded guilty in June 2020.

“From or about October 14, 2013, until on or about September 13, 2014, the defendant engaged in, and attempted to engage in, illicit sexual conduct with four different minor victims in Kenya,” McSwain said.

He was jailed by United States District Judge Edward G. Smith in Lancaster County, Philadelphia, for the crimes committed against the children in Kenya.

The judge placed Dow under a lifetime of supervised release after he pleaded guilty to committing the offences between 2013 and 2017 against girls between the age of 11 and 13 years.

The court also ordered the convict to pay Sh1.7 million ($16,000) in restitution according to acting US Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams of the Department of Justice, Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

“Under the guise of faith-based charity work, benefiting orphaned children, Gregory Dow travelled half way around the world to prey on incredibly vulnerable victims,” Ms Williams said after the sentence was handed by Justice G. Smith.

Williams added: “His crimes are nearly incomprehensible in their depravity. We thank the witnesses in this case for coming forward to report him, and our law enforcement partners in the United States and Kenya for working diligently to bring him (Dow) to justice. It is no exaggeration to say that the world’s children are safer with Dow behind bars.”

Michael J. Driscol, Special Agent in charge of the FBI in Philadelphia Division, said “Dow was the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

“He presented himself as this big-hearted man who was living against his faith, when all the while, he was sexually abusing girls placed in his care. These horrific crimes were a betrayal of an entire community’s trust,” Driscol said in a statement after sentencing.

Driscol added: “If Dow thought he could get away with it because he was in a different country, if he thought no one would care because these were under-privileged black children he victimised, this investigation and today’s sentence have most emphatically proved him wrong.”

Before travelling to Kenya in 2008, Dow had been convicted of preying on his daughter back in the US and his former wife Ms Janie Jenkins came out to state that he repeatedly committed the offence against their child when they lived in Ohio state, USA.

Dow, who was arrested and charged with the offence, also pleaded guilty to a charge of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse, for which he received two years’ probation and was ordered to register as a sex offender for a decade in the US.

The convicted paedophile found his way to Kenya where he continued perpetrating his crimes before the law caught up with him while hiding in the US.

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