House help jailed for life after Facebook friend lured her into child pornography

When Anne (real name hidden to protect the identity of a minor) left her Taita-Taveta home for Mombasa in 2018, she had lofty ambitions and considerable plans for her future.

A trained tailor, she had hopes of securing a job in the port city to lift her family out of poverty. A hardworking lady and the fourth-born in a family of seven, she believed in a world of opportunities and had a burning desire to succeed in life. Things, however, did not pan out as planned. 

Brought up in a Christian home in the countryside, Anne was an innocent lady with little exposure to the secular world. But a serious error of judgement on a social media platform one afternoon in 2020 dramatically changed her life. Anne, 20, naively trusted a stranger on Facebook who lured her into the dark world of child pornography.

When she arrived in Mombasa, there were no opportunities in tailoring, but Anne did not give up on her dream. Determined to excel, she kept searching and got a job as a house help in Bamburi. It was a good start.

From the beginning, all was well. Her employers were treating her well and had trusted her with the care of their toddler. After about a year and a half, she bought a smartphone. Life was good. She explored social media sites and one day noticed a Facebook friend request from one Lucracea.

Exchanged nudes

He did not look suspicious, so Anne accepted the request. It was a mistake that would later land her in Shimo la Tewa prison for child porn. They began chatting regularly and Lucracea seemed caring at the beginning. 

Anne gradually gained confidence with the frequency of the chats, unaware that Lucracea was laying a trap for her. With more than a billion people around the world routinely online, the Internet has become an integral part of our daily lives. And so, Anne thought she was just having a nice time. 

Lucracea would then introduce her to a Facebook page, where participants all over the world exchanged nude photos and graphic videos. He promised to secure her a better job through his manager, whom he identified as Joshua. After a few days, Joshua contacted Anne and informed her that she had been recruited into the Illuminati, locally believed to be a devil worshipping group with huge financial benefits.

“I was then instructed to send nude photos and videos. They also instructed me to masturbate on camera and share the videos. I did exactly that with the hope that I would be paid at the end of the month,” Anne told court in a case in which she was accused of defiling a minor and filming the act for distribution. 

She said Joshua had threatened to kill her if she failed to follow his instructions. He later instructed her to sexually assault the minor in her care, film the act and send the video clip to a foreign number. She blindly followed the instructions and this continued for months.

Sexual assault

But after a while, Anne felt a sense of guilt, suffered depression and decided to quit her job. Shortly after quitting, the pornographic clips involving the minor, a four-year-old boy, were shared with the mother. 

The stranger threatened to post them on social media if the victim’s family failed to send an undisclosed amount of money. The mother tried to contact Anne but could not reach her as she had switched off her phone. The matter was reported to Bamburi Police Station and with the help of her friends, who were also into porn, Anne was traced and arrested.

The phone she was using was confiscated and forwarded to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations headquarters in Nairobi for forensic analysis, which showed she had sent the video clips to several foreign numbers and had actually received payments.

In January, she was arraigned in Shanzu. She pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the minor between June 2020 and October last year. The court heard that she produced audiovisual pornographic material of her being in sexually explicit conduct with a minor and earned a token.

She was jailed for life and for 10 years for another offence of child pornography. The sentences run concurrently. Anne sought forgiveness from the victim’s family.