Mombasa County Commissioner Nelson Marwa has ordered Nyali police boss Mohammed Adan to be investigated over alleged complicity to deny justice to a four-year-old defilement victim. He said there was glaring evidence that the officer had refused to act on a case in which a man is accused of defiling his daughter because he had allegedly been bribed.
Marwa said it was unfortunate that the suspect had not been arrested three months after the defilement was reported. “The work of police officers is to protect citizens and moreover the complainant is a minor.
This is a bad picture we are sending to citizens,” said Marwa. “Why has the OCS taken too long to arrest the suspect?” Marwa suspected the OCS and other officers could have interfered with the matter and hence the need to investigate them. Grandmother to the minor said her father raped her on a day he had requested the daughter to visit him.
“I did not suspect that he can do such a thing to his own daughter.” The girl’s mother is deceased. Her grandmother claims when she went to report at Nyali Police Station, she was asked to pay Sh1,200 to obtain a P3 form.
“I did not have any money but after few days I borrowed it and paid.” And in what seemed to be a plot to scuttle the case, she said that during the test, the officer who took her to the hospital did not carry the stained clothes and that since then, police have been taking her in circles. Marwa ordered the suspect to be arrested immediately.
This come as a civil society group raised the alarm over increased inaction on cases of gender-based violence by Coast police who ‘auction’ justice to the highest bidder—usually the suspects. Commission for Human Rights and Justice blamed corruption for the delayed justice for rape and defilement victims.
The organisation’s executive director Julius Ogogo said complainants at the gender desk at various police stations were being frustrated by complacent officers who work with suspects to deny victims justice. “Police officers are ready to tamper with evidence available hence denying justice to victims who file complaints,” he claimed.
Ogogo cited more than 13 complaints lodged at the Nyali Police Station against a “well-known serial rapist and defiler” who is yet to be arrested and arraigned in court. Coast region police commander Francis Wanjohi said though police were partly to blame for delayed prosecution of rape and defilement cases, it was hard to manage evidence on victims since it concerns individuals.
He said paralegal documents were not for sale and asked any rape victim whose case was being frustrated by officers at the Coast region to forward the same to his office. “Any one with complaints at the particular police station, should immediately come to my offices and help us reveal the truth behind the allegations,” he said.
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