Court told how man lured children into sex

Tom Kidemi when he appeared in a Nakuru court in May last year. [File, Standard]

A court has ruled that a boda boda operator facing 30 counts of child pornography has a case to answer.

Nakuru Resident Magistrate Eunice Kelly said yesterday the prosecution had tendered overwhelming evidence in establishing a case against 46-year-old Tom Musabili Kidemi.

Mr Kidemi, a father of six, is accused of showing pornographic movies to children aged 12 and 13 years. He allegedly committed the offence at his home in Railways estate in March last year.

He was also charged with forcing children to engage in sexual acts, promoting child prostitution, promoting child pornography and promoting sex among children. He denied the charges.

According to witnesses, Kidemi would lock up the children in his house as they watched the movies, and force one child to touch the private parts of another during the shows.

Children confessed to police that the suspect would gather them in his house after school. Those who came late were fined Sh10 each.

Sugarcane reward

The children who testified in court said Kidemi would reward them with sugarcane after they had watched the movies and engaged in sex.

“I met my friend, who asked me to go with him to Kidemi’s house to eat sugarcane. He played a CD of people having sex,” said one child.

The court heard that the children began skipping school and arriving home late in the evenings.

Their absence from school only came to light when one of the children’s parents raised the alarm when her son did not come home from school. 

A teacher who testified in court said the boy’s mother visited the school early the next morning to ask where her son was.

“The parent came to school and reported that her child had not returned home from school. We checked our class register and found the boy was in school the previous day.”

The teacher said they tried to inquire about the boy’s whereabouts from other pupils, who revealed that he had been seen near the accused man’s home dressed in his home clothes.

Teachers advised the parent to report the matter to the police station and return to school. The mother went to Central Police Station to file a missing person’s report.

While she was at the station, officers there told her that they had three minors locked up in the cells. To her shock, one of the children turned out to be her son.

After identifying the boy, the mother recorded a statement with the police.

Suspect’s house

The teacher testified that after questioning the other pupils, one child revealed the names of the children who frequented the suspect’s house, after which the teachers summoned them individually for more questioning.

“They (the children) independently and individually told us that they went to Tom’s house to watch pornography. We investigated some more and found the same children had been absconding classes every day from 9:30am to 11am,” the teacher said.

The teacher told the court that one of the children revealed that Kidemi had forced him to have sex with a mentally challenged girl and given each of them Sh50.

Kidemi told the court he would give unsworn evidence and that he had no witnesses to testify in his favour. 

His defence will be heard on June 14.