Police in Ikolomani Constituency, Kakamega County have arrested a 46-year-old woman accused of abducting a 17-year-old girl, whom she handed over to her husband to defile. Also arrested, is the woman’s partner.
The woman, who hails from Isulu Village in Ikolomani, is reported to have kidnapped the teenager from her parents’ home in Teso South, Busia County on Tuesday, July 21.
Mary Harun, who is claimed to be living with fertility challenges, allegedly abducted the minor with the intention of handing her over to her 49-year-old husband, Wycliffe Makotsi, to defile.
According to preliminary investigations, Mary unlawfully confined the teenager so that she could conceive for her (Mary’s) spouse, Makotsi.
Children’s rights activists, who had been informed of the woman’s actions by neighbours, stormed her home and rescued the teenager.
“Neighbours said they heard the teenager screaming, and when they entered the suspect’s house, they found the woman’s husband sexually penetrating the minor, who was a virgin. The abduction suspect, who was present when the defilement was taking place, was the one holding the girl’s legs apart and pinning her down on the bed. Locals found blood flowing from the girl’s private parts,” said a rights activist.
Residents, who allege that Mary has previously kidnapped five underage girls with a motive similar to the latest incident, will be banished from the Isulu Village community.
“None of the girls she previously abducted under the guise that she would offer them a job at her home conceived for her spouse,” said a neighbour.
The woman and her husband are being held at the Malinya Police Station, whereas the minor, who doctors at Shibwe Sub-County Hospital have since confirmed that she was defiled, is being accommodated at a children’s home in Kakamega.
Confirming the incident, Ikolomani OCPD Joseph Chesire told K24 Digital that Mary will be charged with kidnapping the minor.
“We might also charge her with child sex trafficking once investigations are concluded,” said Chesire.
Section 13(b) of Kenya’s Sexual Offences Act states that: “A person including a juristic person who, in relation to a child supplies, recruits, transports, transfers, harbors or receives a child, within or across the borders of Kenya, for purposes of the commission of any sexual offence under this Act with such child or any other person, is guilty of an offence of promoting child sex tourism and is liable upon conviction to imprisonment for a term of not less than ten years and where the accused person is a juristic person to a fine of not less than two million shillings.”
Mary’s husband, on the other hand, stares at spending at least 15 years in jail should he be arraigned and found guilty of defilement.
Section 8 (4) of The Sexual Offences Act 2006 states: “A person who commits an offence of defilement with a child between the age of sixteen and eighteen years is liable upon conviction to imprisonment for a term of not less than fifteen years.”
Mary and her spouse, Makotsi, who have been married for at least 20 years, have been unable to get children.
