19-year-old freed after High Court quashes 20-year defilement sentence

A 19-year-old who was facing 20 years in prison for defilement was freed after the High Court in Kibera found that the complainant presented herself as an adult who had completed high school and was studying in college.

P. M. was freed after his conviction and sentence of 20 years in prison were overturned by Justice Diana Kavedza,.

Justice Kavedza noted that the trial court failed to interrogate circumstances, adequately consider or record the complainant’s demeanour, maturity, physical appearance, and conduct in initiating the conversation, or the appellant’s own age of 19 and proximity to that of the complainant.

Both the girl and P.M. admitted before the court that they engaged in adult acts for the six days they stayed together.

The trial court had dismissed his petition for review of conviction, citing that the prosecution proved the ingredients of the crime beyond reasonable doubt, failed to consider his defense, and the sentence was overly punitive.

Testimonies before the court revealed how the two met and what the complainant told P.M. According to the girl, she went to appellant’s house on October 7, 2024 instead of going to her grandfather’s house to deliver some food. She spent the night at his house. The girl stayed for almost a week before she went back to her house after a week.

The girl told the court that she had informed P.M. that she had completed high school and she was over 18 years old and that she was pursuing a beauty course at a college in Westlands, Nairobi.

“I told him that I had finished school and that I am in college at Purple Heart College. I told him I am doing a beauty course. I told him I am an adult over 18 years,” she said.

P.M. testified that the complainant asked to meet him in person after interacting with him on Instagram in August 2024. She came to his house and they engaged in sexual intercourse.

“She told me that she was 19 years old and that she was studying a beauty course at a certain college in Kangemi. She gave a very mature and appealing look which showed that she was an adult. I engaged in the act with her believing that she was an adult female of sound mind,” he said.

The Nairobi Women’s Hospital records showed that the complainant was 14 years old and that she had been defiled which led to the conviction by the trial court.

However, on appeal, Justice Kavedza noted that the lower court failed to take into account the defense that the accused chose to engage in intimacy with the complainant because of her appearance and statements indicating that she was 18 years old and was in college.

The girl told the court that she did not attend school for over a year, which means that by the time P.M met her physically, she had completed secondary education. The circumstances indicate that although the accused was 19 years old at the time of the incident, he was only five years older than the complainant. “The appeal is allowed. The appellant’s conviction is quashed, and the sentence of twenty (20) years imprisonment is set aside. The appellant is set at liberty unless otherwise lawfully detained,” Justice Kavedza said.