Nakuru man helping defiled street children access justice

Sodomy and defilement of street children is common, but there are no official figures on the prevalence of sexual violence for this group.

One man in Nakuru has taken it upon himself to highlight these children’s plight and to fight for them.

David Kuria, 58, listens and responds to the cries of the parentless children on Nakuru streets. Beneath his simple demeanour, the bespectacled, greying, bearded man, born and raised at Nakuru’s Kabazi, is a fighter with a conviction to assist rape and defilement victims.

Mr Kuria, popularly known as “Western” is relentless when it comes to pursuing justice for the oppressed children. This has made it easy for the street children to share with him their traumatic experiences at the hands of businessmen, guards and others in the streets.

For the past 20 years, Mr Kuria, a businessman, has spent a large part of his life either taking the sodomised or defiled street children to hospital using his own resources, or accompanying them to the police station to file reports.

“These street children do not know where to go to when one of them is sexually abused by the senior street children or those who run businesses at night or the watchmen,” says Mr Kuria.

Rape and defilement

The trained paralegal has so far pursued more than 500 cases of human rights violations, including rape and defilement.

“He (Kuria) has been instrumental in highlighting cases of rape and defilement among the street children. And not just only those cases but others relating to abduction of children,” says Mwambi Mongare, Nakuru County Children’s Coordinator.

Mr Kuria has waged battles with police, local authorities, hospitals and even crooked lawyers in his quest for justice for human rights abuse victims.

All this he does for free. Many a time, the father of five has had to spend nights in cold police cells, fighting for the voiceless in the society.

He became a known figure among street families when he started volunteering to bury their colleagues in the late 1990s. Since then, they have been reporting to him any incidents of sexual violence.

“A month never passes without three to four cases of sexual offence against these children being reported to him. Most of these cases happen within the central business district,” he says. 

Nakuru town has an estimated population of 3,000 street children.

Most of them sleep in the alleys, temporary structures adjacent to Wakulima market or makeshift homes underneath footbridges and interchanges along the Nakuru-Nairobi highway.

In June 2019, the Nakuru County government dumped some of the street children at Sawich Torongo forest in Eldama Ravine to clear the streets. They were, however, later brought back to the streets following an uproar by local human rights activists.

Mr Kuria tells the Nation that his fight for the voiceless dates back to 1992 during the clamour for multiparty democracy as he exposed the rot in the then dreaded Kanu Youth Win in Nakuru.

He also featured prominently in the agitation for the unconditional release of political prisoners under the President Daniel Moi regime.

“Between 1992 and 2002, l was arrested on numerous occasions because of my involvement in human rights issues,” says Mr Kuria.

Notably, on November 2, 1993, he was arrested alongside veteran politicians Koigi wa Wamwere, Charles Kuria Wamwere, James Maigwa and G.G. Njuguna Ngengi and linked for attempted robbery with violence following an alleged raid on Bahati Police Station.

He was released after a number of months, without being charged.

Little did he know that his decision to fight the injustices during the Kanu regime were preparing him for what he is today – the voice of the voiceless.

Deeper problem

Mr Kuria, who is also the director of the Nakuru Human Rights Network, has an office at the heart of Nakuru Town from where he serves street children and other victims.

“Cases of defilement and rape in Nakuru County are alarming. There is a deeper problem involving minors, which needs to be addressed urgently. Many are assaulted by people close to them,” Mr Kuria says. But thanks to his tenacity, many victims have had access to justice despite the odds being stacked against them.

In July last year, for instance, he successfully demanded for investigations into allegations that officers at Kabazi Administration Police camp in Subukia, released a suspect accused of defiling a 15-year-old girl. He wrote to the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (Ipoa) and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to investigate the officers over claims they received a Sh8,000 bribe to free the suspect. The suspect was re-arrested and charged.

Another family narrated to the Nation how Mr Kuria’s intervention forced police officers to investigate the defilement case of a 12-year-old girl.

“A neighbour took advantage of the absence of other family members to defile my daughter and went ahead to bribe police officers to cover up. However, because of Mr Kuria’s intervention, Ipoa took up the matter,” says the father of the victim.

In another incident in 2014, Mr Kuria intervened in a case where an Egerton University student had defiled an eight-year-old girl. The police had left the suspect go scot-free despite medical examinations linking him to the matter.

Through the Nakuru Human Rights Network, Mr Kuria, wrote to the DPP and the Inspector General of Police and the suspect was re-arrested months later and is now serving a 20-year jail term.

As would be expected for such a cause, Mr Kuria has faced a number of challenges.

Key among them is the fact that perpetrators compromise some molested street children with money or death threats, leading to the collapse of cases. Sometimes, he says, relatives of rape or defilement victims disappear.

“In most incidences involving relatives, families sometimes decide to settle the matter out of court, thus making justice elusive for the victims,” he explains.

Other challenges he has encountered include victims’ parents being compromised, shoddy police investigations and administrators settling cases out of court.

“Although suspects have the right to be released on bond, I feel they should not be freed on bond; these are dangerous people who often, after release, interfere with the cases,” he says.

Threats

Just like many other human rights crusaders, he has also had to live with threats against his life.

“I receive threats, often from suspects. But I make sure l record a statement with the police to follow up,” he notes.

These threats to his life saw Mr Kuria, in 2014, become the third person from Africa to be included in the Natalia Project, a worldwide security alarm system for human rights defenders at risk.

“In Kenya, where security for human rights defenders is deteriorating, this protects me in the course of my work,” reveals the activist.

Asked about the motivation behind his work, he said: “My pride and happiness is in helping a person in the darkest of times go back to their normal life and access justice. Many victims do not know who to run to when their rights are trampled on, l always want to see justice served at the end of the day,” he explains.

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