A 25-year-old man will have to wait another week to learn his sentence after a Msambweni court convicted him of defiling a seven-year-old boy.
Athumani Juma was convicted on October 5 and was due to be sentenced on Friday. However, Msambweni Senior Principal Magistrate Leah Kabaria postponed the sentencing to next Friday, saying she had yet to finalise it.
The court heard that Juma allegedly lured the child from a football pitch where he was playing with his friends to his house in Kwale County on June 7, 2025.
Juma denied the charge. Five prosecution witnesses testified against him.
In an unsworn testimony, the child, who was then a Grade Two pupil, told the court that he was playing football on a Sunday when Juma called him. He said he had often seen Juma fetching water at a nearby water kiosk.
The child told the court that he refused to go with Juma, but Juma picked him up and took him to his house, promising to give him sweets. He said Juma sodomised him twice that day and threatened to kill him if he told anyone.
The child said he told his two brothers about the incident and later informed his mother.
He was subsequently taken to hospital, and Juma was arrested.
The child did not attend school for an extended period because he could not control his bowel movements.
Majaliwa Mohammed Bakari, a fishmonger in Kikoneni who is related to Juma, also testified in court.
He said that on June 14, 2025, about a week after the incident, one of the many children who had gone to his house to watch a movie approached him and said the minor could not control his bowel movements.
Majaliwa said he asked the child whether he was in pain. The child said he was not and narrated what Juma had allegedly done to him.
Majaliwa told the court that he took the child to Juma, whom he knew as a water vendor, and confronted him about the incident.
Juma denied the allegation, but the child insisted that it had happened.
Majaliwa said he then took the child to Kikoneni Police Station and reported the matter before going with him to hospital, where examinations reportedly confirmed that the child had been defiled.
The third prosecution witness, Abdalla Juma Chano, a community paralegal working with Tunawajali Wajane, a community-based organisation, told the court that he was watching the news on June 14, 2025, when he heard a commotion outside his house.
He said he went outside and found Majaliwa holding the child's hand while confronting Juma.
Chano said he took the child aside and calmly asked him what had happened. The child then narrated the incident to him.
He told the court that he returned to the crowd and separated Juma from members of the public who had gathered and begun beating him.
Chano also said he was related to Juma and had known him for more than 15 years.
Shabaan Matano Machakure, a clinical officer at Kikoneni Health Centre, told the court that the child was received at the facility on June 16, 2025, accompanied by two police officers.
Machakure and nurse Sophia, who acted as the chaperone, examined the child and found that he had lost anal sphincter muscle strength.
Police Constable William Ng’anga of Shimoni Police Station, the investigating officer, told the court that Juma was brought to the station by members of the public on June 14, 2025, with his hands tied.
Ng’anga said it was alleged that Juma had defiled the child.
He told the court that he escorted the child and Juma to hospital, where it was confirmed that the child had been defiled.
However, Juma maintained that he had been framed.
In his sworn defence, he claimed the child had been beaten to make him accuse him of the offence.
Juma said he was in Makambani one morning having his bicycle serviced when he was called to deliver water in Kirugu village, where he sold water until evening.
He said he then passed by his uncle's house to say hello. Shortly afterwards, Majaliwa and another man, identified as Salim, arrived holding the child's hand.
Juma told the court that the child initially denied being defiled but was threatened with a beating and subsequently changed his account to accuse him.
He said he noticed that the child was bleeding from the head and concluded that he had been beaten and that a confession was being forced out of him to frame Juma.
Juma also said he had been framed because of other things that had happened earlier.
In her judgment, Senior Principal Magistrate Leah Kabaria said the prosecution had proved beyond reasonable doubt that the child had been defiled.
Kabaria said the child initially told only his two younger brothers about the incident because he feared that an adult would kill him, as he had been threatened.
“It emerged that it was these two that reported to his uncle that he could not control his stool. That his uncle asked him who hurt him, that he beat him to reveal who harmed him and it was only then that he told,” senior principal magistrate Kabaria said.
She said she found nothing in the child's testimony to suggest that he had been coached and described his testimony as clear for a child of his age.
“Indeed, the child told the court he did not reveal his assailant until he was beaten. I see nothing about it that suggests a frame-up. It in fact cements the child’s testimony that he kept quiet as he was threatened with death,” Kabaria said in her judgment.
“In view of the forgoing, I do find the prosecution has proved their case to the required standard. I hereby convict the accused person of the charge under consideration being defilement,” Kabaria said.
International Justice Mission (IJM), which represented the victim's family, welcomed the conviction as an important step towards justice for every child.
“Every child deserves to be safe and protected from violence and abuse,” Aggrey Juma, the IJM manager in charge of the Violence Against Women and Children programme, said.
He said the outcome reinforced confidence in the criminal justice system and sent a clear message that those who violate children would be held accountable.
“We hope the sentence reflects the seriousness of this offence and serves as a strong deterrent to others,” Aggrey noted.
