Sex perverts invade city slum

By Joe Ombuor

At her Nairobi Women’s Hospital ward, eight-year-old Pamela talks of baba mwingine, a father figure she did not know who offered her some biscuits and performed some evil acts on her.

Innocence hovers over the girl’s tiny frame as she describes how she found herself in the bush alone, her pants yanked off and with severe pain in her private parts.

"I do not know how I got there. I just woke in the morning feeling cold and the baba was not there," she says amid sobs.

The Class Five pupil from Mukuru Kwa Njenga slum narrates how she picked herself up and sauntered towards the railway line until she saw policemen in uniform.

"I was crying. They asked me if I had a problem. I told them how a man had abandoned me after an evil act. I told them my parents lived at Kiang’ombe village upon which they took me to the police station and gave me food," she says. Pamela lives in Nairobi’s Mukuru Kwa Njenga, a slum stinking with filth and crime which is a place where residents have grown used to ‘normal crime’ such as robbery, mugging and theft.

But they have been shattered by the new crime wave targeting young boys and girls who are lured with goodies and kidnapped. They are then physically molested, raped, sodomised and abandoned.

The many cases in the last four months have caused panic and confusion among parents in an area with one of the largest concentration of churches in the city.

"Churches have helped maintain sanity here, but it seems the devil has woken up from stupor and we shall not rest until we subdue it," says Mr Sammy Okwany, the chairman of security in the tin shack slum.

Mukuru kwa Njenga slum in Nairobi. Criminals are luring children with gifts and then drugging them. Photo: Collins Kweyu/Standard

Councillor Ken Ng’ondi of Mukuru Kwa Njenga ward urges police to increase patrols. He also advises parents to be more vigilant and caution their children to be wary of strangers.

"I have raised this matter with the police, but people’s participation in security matters is crucial. We have re-invigorated community policing as well," he says.

Pamela’s mother, Dorothy, recalls how she agonised the whole night looking for her daughter only to receive word that police on patrol had taken an abandoned child to Embakasi Police Station.

"I found her and with the help of Councillor Ng’ondi, took my traumatised daughter to Nairobi Women’s Hospital," says Dorothy whose husband, a pastor, was at the time on a trip to Tanzania.

Hospital authorities confirmed that the girl had been defiled and they treated her for sexually transmitted diseases. "We have corrected some damage to her sexual organs," said a nurse.

Not far from Dorothy’s home, Brenda was in tears after her seven-year-old sister-in-law, Esther, went missing. "She left the house at around 6am for a call of nature and had not been seen," Brenda says overcome by emotion.

Girl still missing

"I have looked for her everywhere without success. I have reported the matter to Villa Police Post. They are not giving me much hope. I am devastated," she says.By the time of going to press, the Class Three pupil was still missing.

A short distance away from Brenda’s place, lives Ndunge, her husband Joseph and their four children aged between eight and two years.

Like most other parents in the area, Ndunge too has a sad story to tell. She says she was going to draw water at around 7.00pm when her second born, Shadrack, aged six years came running after her.

"I asked him to go back to the house and I continued with my mission to draw water. I was shocked when I returned to find that he had not reached the house. We checked in the neighbourhood, but nobody had seen him. We reported to Villa Police Post at around 11pm," she recalls.

The family was agonising about what to do when word came that police on patrol had picked the boy at 6am. "Police said he was walking and crying along the railway line next to Embakasi Police Station," says Ndunge.

Shadrack who is in Standard One said a man in a black suit offered him sweets shortly before he reached their house.

"He was talking to me, asking about some direction when I lost consciousness and I do not know what happened next. I was in the bush, cold and alone when I woke up in the morning. My trouser was lying nearby and my anal opening was wet with some discharge and smarting with pain," recalls Shadrack.

Unsure of his whereabouts or the direction to his home, Shadrack says he started crying as he walked slowly until he came across police officers on patrol. Medical examination revealed that the boy had been sodomised.

In another incident in the slum, Bolton, an 11-year-old Standard Five pupil was playing outside their house at 6.30pm when someone gagged him with a handkerchief and dragged him to a waiting car.

Bolton says he found several other children in the car that was being driven by a woman. "We were driven towards the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and at a secluded spot away from the road, we were forced to take some salty liquid. I passed out," he relates.

"I gained consciousness towards morning and I was alone. The car, its occupants and the children were not there. I collected my trouser that had been thrown nearby and with stabbing pain from my backside, I rose and walked aimlessly when the morning light started showing. "I came across some Maasai watchmen who took me to Villa Police Post where my parents came for me," he says.

Bolton’s father who is a pastor at a local church says his son was sodomised and had to undergo treatment at Mbagathi District Hospital. "The ordeal left him dazed and confused. He is still undergoing counselling," he says.

Embakasi Deputy OCPD Mr Ogul confirms that reports of kidnap, rape and sodomy of minors have been received. "We have received the reports and have launched investigations. We have also made a few arrests and questioned suspects in connection with the incidents," he says.

NB: Names have been changed to protect the children’s identity.

 

 

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