Man wrongfully jailed for life for defiling daughter leaves Kamiti Prison

Emotions ran high outside Kamiti Maximum Security Prison after a man who was wrongfully convicted for defiling his daughter and jailed for life reunited and exchanged pleasantries with the daughter and family.

Julius Wambua and his daughter Dorcas Mwende hugged outside the country’s top correctional facility where he has been incarcerated for the last nine years after he walked out a free man.

Wambua publicly stated that he has forgiven his daughter who also said it was a relief for her father to come out of what she put him in without her wish.

“Today is like my resurrection day or my birthday. I will always consider it the first day in life because of the things I have gone through since I was put here on January 24, 2012. I have forgiven everyone, including my wife who falsely claimed I did this to my child knowing it was not true. But my wife should look for me and apologise,” he said.

“I am happy to be with my children. I have forgiven my daughter because as she has always said she never knew. My young daughter was in Tanzania when she was required by the court to be heard before I am released and she left everything to come because she knows I am her father and I love them.”

His daughter was equally elated.

“I have gotten a relief of my life. It was too heavy for me knowing my father was in prison for what he never did and I was used to putting him there,” Mwende said. 

She has been regularly visiting her father for the last few years.

“I am appealing to my mother, wherever you are, may you find it in your heart to apologise because what you did was wrong. God loves and forgives everyone. Seek forgiveness for your actions to be able to live a long peaceful life.”

Wambua was jailed after his estranged wife falsely accused him of defiling their daughter aged 12 at the time, following their matrimonial differences.

But he got a reprieve after he was freed on a Sh200,000 bond with an alternative cash bail of Sh30,000 by Justice George Odunga of Machakos High court before his retrial for defilement begins afresh.

Although the case is not yet over, Wambua is optimistic that he has already won.

Found 'guilty' 

Wambua was jailed by a Kithimani Law Court in Machakos County after he was found 'guilty' of defiling his daughter who later came out and confessed that she was duped by her mother and coached to frame her father. She was the star witness in the case against her father.

And as he hugged family members and his lawyer, Cyrus Maweu, members of the public who gathered outside the prison also expressed anger over his unlawful incarceration.

As Wambua awaits trial, he has appealed to well-wishers for support to start rebuilding his life.
It is clear that the case against him has little chance of earning him a conviction, considering the complainant in the case who is also the star witness, has already recanted her testimony and disowned the case against her father.

In his ruling, while granting a prayer for fresh trial, Justice Ondunga said that although Wambua had lodged and lost two appeals, the latest development following his daughter’s confession was likely to result in a different outcome.

“The fact that the complainant (Mwende) whose evidence has in totality been refuted, rebutted, recanted and abandoned, her testimonies affirming coercion and threats from her mother at the time of making them in the trial court is in itself new and compelling evidence that would have resulted in a different verdict,” the judge said on Tuesday.

Wambua had moved to the High Court in Machakos and filed an application under certificate of urgency, and petitioned the court to overturn the judgment that had condemned him to life imprisonment.

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) was listed as second petitioners after picking up the case immediately it was aired by Citizen TV last year.

Through his lawyer, Wambua invoked Article 50 (6) of the Constitution, which gives room for a new trial for a criminal offence if the convict’s appeal has been dismissed by the highest court to which the person is entitled to appeal, or if new and compelling evidence has become available.

He based his petition on the fact that his daughter had disowned the complaint and evidence she gave in courts under coercion by her mother who was out to settle scores.