Teacher from hell jailed for 10 years

The High Court has upheld a 10 year sentence slapped on a science teacher who turned into a pest by preying on boys in his class.

The court sitting in Murang’a ruled that nine boys who complained against John Gachia Muyi could not have lied that the teacher took advantage of them being minors by touching their private parts on different occasions.

Justice Kanyi Kimondo also dismissed claims by the teacher that the pupils aged between 13 and 16, parents and some of his colleagues had conspired to lie against him because he was heading the school’s science department.

 “The appellant committed acts of indecency on nine boys on different dates. Each count was thus a distinct and separate offence. The learned trial magistrate was entitled to order the sentences to run consecutively. I cannot then say he applied wrong principles or overlooked some material factors,” reads part of the judgment.

The judge said this in an appeal in which Muyi challenged the 10 year sentence that had been slapped on him by the magistrate’s court in June 2015 for the offence he committed in 2015 at a primary school in Murang’a County. Section 11 of the Sexual Offences Act provides for a minimum sentence of ten years