27-year-old pastor sentenced to 38 years in prison for defiling two primary school girls

A 27-year-old pastor has been sentenced to 38 years in prison for the defilement of two primary school girls.

Samuel Ngumbao was found guilty by two magistrate’s courts for defiling the minors in Kwale County in 2022. The pupils, aged 14 and 16 years, are cousins who used to visit the pastor at his church.

Mariakani Resident Magistrate Olivia Koranje ruled that Ngumbao should serve 30 years in jail for defiling the 14-year-old girl, and Principal Magistrate Nelly Adalo sentenced him to eight years for defiling the 16-year-old student.

Koranje said the case against Ngumbao had been proven to the required legal standard. The magistrate said the evidence presented by six prosecution witnesses, led by Police Constable Annette Wanjohi, was credible and reliable.

Adalo said the prosecution’s evidence, led by senior prosecution counsel Jethron Okumu, had been proven beyond any reasonable doubt.

Ngumbao was accused of defiling both students between August 12 and 17, 2022, in Samburu sub-county.

Both minors described how the pastor lured them into his house before defiling them. They had initially met him during one of his public sermons before he took them into his house and committed the acts.

“Both of us took turns sleeping with him,” narrated the 16-year-old DW, who is cousins with 14-year-old SW.

Both minors said they continued to sleep with the pastor for four days.

DW said on August 17, 2022, at around 9pm, police stormed Ngumbao’s home, and they were taken away.

DW said despite her mother warning her against visiting the pastor, who had moved his church to a new area, she sneaked with her cousin SW to see him.

“The next day, I asked my mother for permission to visit the pastor, but my mother refused. We later decided to visit the pastor without our parents’ permission,” DW said.

“I used to visit the pastor at his home and then return home until the day he decided to move and live in Mavumbo. I remember it was on a Wednesday when the pastor relocated to Mavumbo, and SW was with him. I joined them on the following Saturday,” DW said.

According to SW, a 14-year-old Standard Four pupil, in June 2022, she joined Ngumbao’s church and started visiting him along with DW. They would assist with house chores at his residence.

In her testimony presented in court, she informed the police that she had requested Ngumbao to allow her to stay with him in his new house in Mavumbo and keep it secret.

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