Recognising the silent scourge of assault against little boys, a court has upheld a life sentence for a man who lured a curious boy with fairytales, leading him into a Rongo forest where the child was sodomised.

 

It was a Saturday, a major day of worship in southern Nyanza for Seventh Day Adventists.

 

The boy T.A.O was 11 years old in 2012. He and his younger brother P.O. were going to church when S.O.O met them and told them stories about a rabbit.

 

He claimed to have caught a rabbit from the nearby forest and asked the curious boys if they wanted to go with him to see it.

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The boys agreed to go with the man into the thickets where he pulled out a panga and demanded the boy undress, then violated T.A.O.

 

“T.A.O and his younger brother, P.O left home and on their way to the church bumped into the appellant.

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The appellant lured them with a storyline about a rabbit he had caught, and propelled by childlike curiosity, T.A.O requested to see the animal,” court documents read.

 

“The appellant took them to a forest, and when they got to a bush the appellant told T.A.O. to remove his shorts so that he could see his penis and proceeded to penetrated him, [and] later at home T.A.O reported the ordeal to his grandmother,” the court of appeal decision on May 9 read.

 

He was convicted by a magistrate’s court, which sentenced him to life imprisonment.

 

He appealed without success at the High Court, which dismissed his first appeal in October 2014.

 

On May 9 this year, the Appeals court confirmed the conviction and sentence.

 

The medical report on the boy read that besides causing physical harm, the assailant risked infecting him with HIV.

 

“Further examination revealed the complainant was HIV-negative, and the rectal swab showed some epithelial cells and the appellant HIV-positive.”

 

In his defence the convicted assailant said on the day of the attack, he had been sent to cut grass at the home of the children’s grandmother. When the children saw him dressed in ragged clothes and carrying a panga, they ran away, saying he was mad.

 

“This court finds that it has no jurisdiction to interfere with the sentence as affirmed by the High Court. The upshot of the foregoing is that the appellant’s appeal lacks merit and is dismissed,” the Court of Appeal ruled.