A pastor and his son have been placed on probation for three years after being convicted of assaulting a self-proclaimed prophet in Eldoret following a long-running land dispute.
Eldoret Senior Resident Magistrate Kimani Mukabi on Monday ordered Alfred Juma Nandasaba, a pastor with the Word of Resurrection Church, and his son, Samuel Wekesa Juma, to serve a three-year probation term in Uasin Gishu County.
The court also directed the two convicts to pay Sh100,000 to the complainant, Berita Wafula, to cover medical expenses incurred following the assault.
Magistrate Mukabi further ordered the investigating officer attached to Baharini Police Station, who handled the case, to ensure the two report to the station as required during the probation period.
The court directed that the pastor and his son maintain peace and good conduct throughout the three years and refrain from interfering with or threatening the complainant.
“There are some issues the court cannot agree with, especially when the complainant indicated that she wanted compensation of about Sh350,000, which I considered extremely high. Let them pay what is necessary, which is Sh100,000,” Mukabi ruled.
The magistrate said he had considered the mitigation presented by the accused persons as well as the contents of a pre-sentence report prepared by the Uasin Gishu County probation office before arriving at the decision.
The case arose from a protracted land dispute involving the pastor, his son and Wafula, who accused the pair of encroaching on her parcel of land at Tairi Mbili along the Eldoret-Webuye highway.
The two were charged with assault causing actual bodily harm contrary to Section 251 of the Penal Code.
According to the charge sheet, the accused jointly and unlawfully assaulted Wafula on January 13, 2021, at Tairi Mbili in Turbo Sub-County, causing her actual bodily harm.
Both men denied the charges during plea taking, prompting the prosecution to call three witnesses in support of its case.
Testifying during the trial, Wafula told the court that she discovered her fence had been destroyed when she stepped outside her home on the day of the incident. She said she found the two accused at the scene and alleged they threatened to teach her a lesson over the long-standing boundary dispute.
The court, however, found the two guilty and imposed a non-custodial sentence.