Police accused of locking up a 12-year-old girl who came to report her police officer father for ‘defiling’ her (Photo)

Officers at Isebania Police Station in Kenya have been accused of locking up a 12-year-old girl after she had gone to report her father for allegedly defiling her. 

According to Nairobi News, the distraught 12-year-old girl had accused her father, a police officer, of defiling her on November 1 at their home in Nyabohanse town after luring her into his bedroom.

The victim claimed that her attempts to have her father arrested were futile after officers turned against her. She said they locked her up in a bid to conceal evidence of defilement.

Narrating the ordeal, the Standard Five pupil at a private school in Nyabohanse town, said she went to visit her biological father to get her school fees when he sexually assaulted.

According to distraught girl, her father, a police officer who worked with a senior politician in Migori County before being interdicted from police service, lured her into his bedroom and defiled her in broad daylight.

“I went to see him to collect my fee balance on instructions of my grandmother with whom I lived. She could not afford Sh13,890 which I owed the school so I went to my father who operates a pub in Nyabohanse town,” she told the Nation this week. 

“I was cleaning utensils when he came home that morning. He called me to his bedroom as he wanted me to do some shopping for breakfast. I was helpless as he pinned me on his bed and committed the act,” she said.

According to the minor, she rushed out of the house weeping and ran to Nyabohanse Police Post where she reported the incident.

“I reported the incident to a female police officer, who called my father and the area chief and tried to persuade me to forgive him,” she said.

At about 2pm, she was transferred to Isebania Police Station where she was placed in a cell for six days before she was taken to Nyayo Hospital, where she was tested and given a prescription.

She said while she was locked up, Officers allowed in her father to check on her, and in the process, he threatened her to drop the case.

“When we visited her on the same evening she was arrested, the officer declined to release her, saying the national flag at the station had already been lowered and we were not allowed to see her,” her grandmother told the Nation.

“All we need is justice for the minor. It is sad that the police, who ought to have protected her, conspired with the suspect to torment her further,” the girl’s grandmother said.

“The suspect, who should be in custody, walks scot-free and was accessing the girl freely as we were denied any chance to see her.”

It was also claimed that the girl’s medical report and police statements were tampered with in other to destroy the case.

“The six-day detention was a plot to conceal possible evidence of rape. Even police records and the occurrence book entries were skewed,” the girl’s guardian said.

The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji also confirmed that the case was closed “due to lack of evidence”.

In a letter dated November 5 and addressed to the OCS Isebania Police Station, Mr Martin Mwongera, a senior prosecution counsel, says the case should be terminated.

“… after perusing police files and statements, I find no sufficient evidence to charge the suspect with the said offence,” the letter reads in part.

Meanwhile, in a chat with the Nation, Kuria West police chief Bernard Muriuki and Migori Police Commander Celestino Nyaga said they attempted to take the suspect to Kehancha Law Courts twice on November 5 and 19 failed after the prosecution counsel cited lack of evidence.

He also said he was not aware the victim was held at Isebania Police Station for six days.