By Lorna Abuga.
Every year Christians all over the world look forward to Christmas. It is the day to mark the birth of their saviour Jesus Christ. They also usually look forward to the day after Christmas – Boxing Day. It is the day they open gifts sent by friends.
These two days are important to Christians. They always come with niceties, including delicacies and festivities that only come once in a year. And once the two days are done, Christians sometimes keep the memories engraved in their hearts – after all they are good memories.
But for one 13 year old girl in Naishi, Njoro, last year on Boxing Day her mother sent her to a nearby shop to buy sugar. It was the normal errands that mothers ask their children to do. Little did she and her mother know that the day would leave a life time memory in her, and a bad one for that.
When she got to the shop she claims, the shop keeper, who is a middle aged man asked her to get into his shop. It is then that he stripped her and defiled her. The man, Raphael Mbugua then threatened her not to tell anyone lest he kills her.
The girl then went home, terrified! But she would never to disclose to anyone. What she did not know is that the man had infected her with HIV/AIDS.
That remained a secret in her for some time until her father was infected with tuberculosis. The father was asked by his doctor to bring all his family members for routine check up. During that time all were tested for tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. It is then that the girl tested positive to the surprise of everyone.
It was then that she disclosed what had happened and the suspect was arrested and later arraigned in court.
“I discovered that I was HIV positive when the doctors examined me and immediately they enrolled me on the ARVs program,”
the minor told Nakuru Resident Magistrate Eunice Kelly last week.
Last week the court was also told that the accused and the minor had been taken to the Nakuru Level 5 hospital by the investigation team and they both tested positive.
The accused denied the charges and will be held in custody until his hearing this year December 7 this year.
According to the Sexual Offences Act both the
“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.”
The same Act states that anyone who intentionally infects someone else with HIV/AIDS
“shall be liable upon conviction to imprisonment for a term of not less than fifteen years but which may be for life.”
Also read ‘Nakuru Court hands man 75 year jail term for indecent act with daughter’.
