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A Mombasa mother fears that she might not get justice after her physically and mentally challenged son, who was gang-raped by a matatu crew late last year, died under mysterious circumstances in May 2016.
Fahim Rashid was travelling to Ganjoni when the driver, co-driver and conductor drove him to a secluded garage in Ganjoni and molested him, according to Aisha Kalinga, the mother, who says “they threatened to kill my son if he ever reported what happened and have now carried out their threat.”
The widowed petrol station attendant in Mombasa, and a mother of two, says that her son refused to go to school the following Monday.
“It is after I involved his special needs teacher that Fahim admitted that he had a terrible secret that he could only divulge to the police,” she says, adding that it was only when he was taken to the police that he informed the gender officer his ordeal and the rape, which was later medically confirmed at the Coast General Hospital.
With all witnesses willing to testify, the family thought it would be an open and shut case, only for the culprits to be remanded for three months as investigations continued pending the calling of witnesses in court in April 2016.
“The arresting officer, the medic who examined Fahim and I, presented ourselves in court, only for the judge to set the hearing for August 2016, and later the family of the accused offered Sh300,000 compensation for her to drop the case.
But “there was no way I could take their money after what they did to my son.” Then, before Fahim could testify against the accused, he suddenly dropped dead when “we were taking breakfast, just before leaving the house,” recalls the mother. She adds that “Fahim suffered a seizure... and we rushed him to hospital where attempts to revive him were in vain.”
No postmortem was carried out on the boy and his death certificate gives sudden death as the cause of death. The accused were released on a Sh200,000 bond each.
