Girl dies in hospital after being ‘defiled’ by alleged preacher
An ambulance parks outside the accident and emergency centre at Homa Bay County Teaching and Referral hospital.
Police in Rangwe sub-county are looking for a cleric accused of defiling a 10-year-old girl and attempting to strangle her on Thursday evening.
Detectives detained an elderly woman who was said to have been with the suspect when the child was defiled at her home in Kamuombo village, Kamenya sub-location.
The girl, identified as Vivian Akoth, met her death when she went to her grandmother’s house.
She was to collect a jerrican that she wanted to use to fetch water.
In the house was a man she could not identify.
Her grandmother said the man was her visitor from Kisumu.
She only identified him as Abraham and did not know where exactly he came from in Kisumu.
He was in the house for prayers and had a robe on that is used by members of Legion Maria.
A police report said the man got hold of Akoth and defiled her.
He then tried to strangle her, leaving her with great pain.
The incident became public when Akoth was taken to hospital.
That Thursday, the family’s neighbour arrived at the house when she received information from the grandmother that her grandchild was groaning in pain.
Akoth was first rushed to Nyagoro dispensary for first aid.
But medics there could not pinpoint what was ailing her.
She was transferred to Homa Bay County Teaching and Referral Hospital on Sunday and doctors established that she had been defiled.
By this time, her health had worsened.
Akoth told doctors that she was defiled by the man she found in her grandmother's house.
Akoth died on Sunday at the hospital.
Homa Bay County Children’s Services Director Peter Kutere confirmed the incident.
He said officers had not found the suspect.
“The grandmother was detained instead. Until the child revealed that she was defiled, the senior citizen did not know what had happened,” Mr Kutere said.
She recorded a statement at the DCI office in Homa Bay town on Monday as police pursued the suspect.
