Police reservist gets 15 years in jail for defilement

A national police reservist found guilty of defiling a 17-year-old girl will serve a 15-year sentence.

Hussein Ibrahim Hassan was sent to jail on Friday by Mandera Senior Resident Magistrate Mukabi Kimani.

He also faced an alternative charge of committing an indecent act with a minor.

Hassan was accused of accosting the girl in Mandera town. The teenager told the court he forcibly held her hand and took her to a house.

At the time of the attack Hassan was donning a police uniform and had a firearm.

“He pushed me over a bed and locked the door. He undressed and defiled me before leaving. He locked me inside,” she told the court.

After he left, the girl screamed and neighbours rescued her. She said she feared raising the alarm in Hassan’s presence because he was armed.

A neighbour of Hassan told the court that she heard distress calls from the reservist’s house.

“I found a crowd and the accused arrived in a police uniform and unlocked the house. This girl walked out and claimed that she had been defiled,” the witness told the court.

An aunt of the girl said the victim had left home in the morning to visit her parents on the other side of Mandera town and she later received a call in the evening informing her of the attack.

The teenager was treated at Mandera County Referral Hospital, but a police officer investigating the case complained about interference from medical staff.

One Dr Ahmed was arrested and charged with interfering with evidence under case number 199 of 2020. The doctor had filled the P3 forms (for recording and reporting assault) indicating it was a case of attempted defilement and proceeded to fill the ‘male’ section of the form though the victim was a female.

Another form filled earlier indicated the victim had been defiled and Mr Nahashon Marieta, a nurse at Mandera Referral, confirmed it. He said he and his colleagues examined the victim and confirmed she had been defiled.

Hassan had denied committing the offence and protested the courts’ decision to admit evidence from a nurse and not a doctor.

While determining the case, Mr Kimani noted that it was undisputed that the victim was a child aged 17 years old.

“It is my finding that the complainant was 17 when the offence was committed and the medical evidence adduced was not discredited by the accused,” he said.