Muslim cleric jailed over child sex tourism

A Muslim cleric has been jailed for 10 years by a Nakuru court for facilitating trafficking of a 17-year-old orphaned girl in 2011 to a Lebanese in Nairobi for sex tourism.

Sheikh Ali Samoja, then head of Bilal Muslim Mission Centre in Nakuru, was charged with trafficking the minor who was allegedly defiled by Sayyid Muktadha before he fled the country.

Senior Resident Magistrate Judicaster Nthuku said the case could have been among the many in which young Kenyan girls are subjected to sex slavery and suffering in Middle East.

She was referring to Samoja's defence that there were no plans to traffic the girl to Lebanon since by then, she had no academic documents to process her traveling documents.

 "The minor said she was violently defiled by the Lebanese. Her complaints fell on deaf ears as Samoja did nothing after he heard the allegations, thus he had something to hide," Nthuku said