A seven-year-old minor said to have been defiled by their neighbour on June 3 narrated she was duped to the house of the assailant to be given some money.
The pre-unit pupil at a local nursery school said that Erastus Mukelemo had found her with her sister and two other girls harvesting mangoes when he asked her to go to his house to get some money.
The minor who had to testify in the magistrate’s chambers where no-one apart from the media and court orderlies were allowed told the magistrate that she was made to undress before she was laid on the bed.
“I left my friends and accompanied the accused person who is a neighbour. When we arrived at his house, he told me to undress, he too removed his pair of trousers and committed the offence,” Kakamega Senior Principal Magistrate Thomas Muraguri was heard.
She said she was then picked and hid in a maize plantation to conceal the actions.
“After he committed the offence, he took me to a nearby maize plantation and gave me Sh100 note. He told me not to tell anyone of what had transpired. That day I did not go to our home,” said the child.
Mukelemo was arrested two days later at Sigalagala shopping center where he allegedly had gone to buy the minor some sweets.
Her nine-year-old sister who also testified told the court collaborated the complainant’s testimony saying that her sister was hiding on the fateful Sunday and found two days later in the company of the accused person.
“I was with my sister on the fateful day when the accused passed where we were and requested my sister to go with her to his house. I followed closely but when they entered the house, I waited for her outside but she stayed for long,” said the class one pupil.
She insisted that she did not scream since the assailant was their immediate neighbour and she did not anticipate anything bad would happen to her.
She told the court that the family resorted to search for the child who went missing after the ordeal.
Mukelemo is faced with the offence of defiling the minor at their Mulundu village, Kakamega East District.
On an alternative count, the accused is charged with unlawfully and illegally committing indecent acts with a minor namely touching her private parts.
The matter was adjourned to Friday when the medical doctor is expected to confirm if there was penetration.
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