Convicted defiler of a 7-year-old girl 'free': Justice or failure?

A man sentenced to 30 years for defiling a seven-year-old girl is missing, raising concerns over enforcement of justice. [File Courtesy]

The unfortunate incident took place, ironically, on June 30, 2023, during Eid al-Hajj: a time of festivities among Muslims.

On December 11, 2025, a magistrate pronounced judgement on a case in which a seven-year-old girl was defiled by a man. ‘I find the accused person herein guilty of the main charge of defilement’, read the legal text in an eight-page judgement, a copy of which The Standard has. The man was subsequently sentenced to 30 years behind bars.

The perpetrator, Salim Said Kuuza, is, however, at large – missing since February 2025 – surprisingly after having been arrested and remanded for being a flight risk.

Reliable sources informed us that despite the court’s directives, the police have yet to arrest him. The question we are asking is, was it by design?

The unfortunate incident took place, ironically, on June 30, 2023, during Eid al-Hajj: a time of festivities among Muslims.

Celebrations turned into horror for seven-year-old Mwanakombo*, from Pungu village in Kwale County. Her father, Suleiman*, narrated the ordeal.

On day 3 of the festivities, Mwanakombo and a friend went house to house, as is tradition, asking for ‘Eid Mubaraka’: gift tokens given to children as part of Eid celebrations.

“They knocked at a neighbouring home and found a young man, from whom they asked for Eid Mubaraka. He said he would give them. But then he sent my daughter’s friend away and told her that her friend – my daughter – would collect the gifts for both of them. He then ushered my little girl into his house.

“He showed her a mango and a Sh50 note. Then he told her that before he could give her the gifts, she needed to strip naked, lie on the floor mat, and close her eyes,” Suleiman says.

As you would imagine, Mwanakombo did as she was told; her seven-year-old brain oblivious of the horror that was about to befall her.

The other girl proceeded straight to Mwanakombo’s home and reported the incident to her mother. Immediately, the woman sensed danger and sprang to her feet, loudly calling out her daughter’s name as she walked back the path, hoping for a response.

Then she heard the screams of her little girl coming from the back door of the house where she was last seen. The mother rushed in and was met by a blood-curdling image of her daughter writhing in pain.

Mwanakombo described to her mother what happened after her friend was sent away by the man.

‘He told me to lie down and he put his male organ into my private parts,’ Suleiman paraphrases what his daughter said. Immediately, the man accused of the crime fled the scene.

The girl’s mother mobilised neighbours for help so that she could take the little girl to a hospital for a medical examination and subsequent pursuit of the criminal.

“They took her to a private hospital not far from here. The doctor confirmed that penetration took place. In fact, the little girl needed stitches on her wounds,” Suleiman says.

The family then reported to Ng’ombeni Police Post, where a P3 form was filled, prompting officers to seek the arrest of the suspect – Salim Said Kuuza – aged 22 at the time.

According to Suleiman, the accused needed to be presented in court to effectively prosecute the case.

“For almost two months, he was nowhere to be seen, until he was eventually spotted by people who let us know his whereabouts. Even then, the police showed no concern – at all – to proactively apprehend him despite constantly informing them whenever he had been seen. One day, I asked a friend to accompany me to where he had been seen. We went and forcefully took him to the police station. I do not think the police would have ever arrested him if we hadn’t done it ourselves,” says the distraught father.

For the first time, Kuuza’s details were captured and he was placed under custody at Kwale Prison.

Before the month was over, Suleiman says he received a call from the probation office.

“The caller informed me that the perpetrator had applied for bond and he had been given. I begged them not to release him because the evidence was solid and if he was released, he could run away or seek to harm me for arresting him, or even harm my daughter some more.”

We met Mwanakombo, her father, and her uncle (at an undisclosed location) with the help of a community paralegal. Aged 9, she was every bit a child as she was three years ago when the incident took place.

To try and stall Salim’s release, Suleiman sought the help of civil society organisation Equality Now – an international non-governmental organisation overseeing a program christened Ending Sexual Violence, in conjunction with a local non-governmental organisation, Sauti ya Wanawake Pwani.

“We aim to ensure abused women and girls get justice. In this case, we supported the parents of the girl to attend court and provide evidence in the case. We also lent technical support with our legal and paralegal officers who monitored the trial process, ensuring barriers to justice were addressed,” says Judy Gitau, a lawyer and Equality Now’s regional coordinator for Africa.

Reliable sources tell us the accused’s bond was set at Sh40,000. His uncle, a brother to his mother, a Mr Kibwana Athman Mwanditi, and his sister, identified as Fatuma Said Kuuza, joined themselves in the case as his Surety.

The case was formally lodged in court and hearings began. Salim, by several accounts, attended some hearings. However, according to Suleiman’s elder brother – Mwanakombo’s uncle – the accused was fond of feigning sickness now and then in order for the judge to move up hearings to buy himself more time.

“From our side, every key witness testified. The girl’s mother, the doctor who handled her, the girl herself, the police – all of them testified.

“In February 2025, defence hearings were to start officially. Salim, in yet another attempt to slow down the process, petitioned the magistrate to restart the trial afresh. But the magistrate (who had taken over the case after the previous one was transferred) ruled against it.

“Salim then asked for a lot of time to prepare his defence. The magistrate gave him two weeks instead. The two weeks elapsed. On the day the hearing resumed, the accused showed up. However, he feigned illness again and vanished. When his name was called, the uncle told the judge that he had fallen ill and had gone to get medicine. That was the last time we saw him,” Suleiman says.

Since then, the accused has remained at large. A warrant of arrest has been issued to get him back to court, but Suleiman says the police (at Ngómbeni police station) are unbothered at best.

“It is my opinion that the police have done as little as they possibly could to get this guy. At this moment, I have strong feelings that some foul play is going on,” Suleiman told The Standard in August.

His apprehension is instilled by suspicious power play that the accused eagerly told random people to the point that it became a village rumour: “The accused was heard saying that no one was going to do anything to him because his sister works for Mombasa County government and his family has the money to frustrate the case forever. My family is left with pain. My daughter – despite undergoing counselling – will never be the same again. Her world changed that day. I see it in how she stays quiet, buried in her thoughts, like she is in her own world.”

The Standard reached out to Kibwana through a phone call to enquire if he knew Salim’s whereabouts. “I don’t know where he is. Neither am I hiding him. I believe one day he will show up,” he said.

Collins Orwa, the state’s prosecutor who was handling the case, was confident that he would achieve a conviction. He told The Standard: “The evidence in this case is water-tight. The offence carries the punishment of serving life in prison. In the meantime, the warrant of arrest against the accused will remain in force until the day he is arrested. The day he is found, he will be carted straight to prison, where he will serve life. Due to his history as a flight risk and an absconder, it will be very difficult for him to appeal.”

We sought to find out how the accused managed to get out on bond when he had already demonstrated that he could be a flight risk.

Our first point of call was the investigating officer (IO): Madam Fatuma Mbale.

“I don’t know what you are talking about. Call the OCS and ask for that information from him,” she responded; her tone communicating great displeasure with our enquiry.

We called the OCS, who was not in charge of the station when the incident took place. He politely asked to get back to us once he had been furnished with details of the case.

“The IO was against giving the accused bail. She told both the probation officer and the magistrate that the accused was a flight risk and should not be released.

“Perhaps the people you should seek more information from are the office of the probation officer and the judiciary,” the OCS said.

We placed a call to the office of the probation officer. An officer at the office spoke to us under the condition of anonymity.

“I have the file with me here. This office clearly recommended that the accused should not be released on bond because he was a flight risk. Our decision to recommend for or against the release of an accused is dependent on the opinions of members of society. In fact, even the area chief was against his release. The IO from the police was also against his release. The decision to give a bond was therefore by the magistrate alone,” the officer said.

Reliable sources say that the magistrate handling the case at the time was Hon. Zacharia Kagenyo Kiongo. We reached out to him as well.

“Give me time to trace back that case file because I am not sure if I am the one who handled the case: I was transferred from Kwale to Nairobi in 2023 August-ish,” the magistrate said when we first reached out.

Because it was an active case, we could not seek input from the magistrate handling the case currently.

The perpetrator had been released because his relatives, the uncle and the sister – identified in court documents as Fatuma Said Kuuza – committed, under oath, that they would make sure he attends court until the case is concluded.

Reliable sources tell us that the two ‘guarantors’, also known as surety, were required to pay Sh80,000 each, or serve a term of six months in jail, if they failed to meet the terms.

According to court records – confirmed to The Standard by the then Court Administrator, Antony Wanjala – the uncle was in jail for about two weeks in September 2025, then paid Sh72,245 as the remainder of his surety terms. He was then released.

As for the sister, she raised the total amount the same day and never spent a day behind bars. Clearly, it was an amount too comfortable for the family to pay off.

Today, Salim Said Kuuza is a free man. No one knows where he is or even if he will ever be arrested. The people who guaranteed his presence in court are also free and now released from any further accountability.

In the meantime, Suleiman (who conducted the first arrest of the perpetrator himself) is left wondering if this is exactly what justice looks like.

“He is free. He can still hurt my daughter or another little girl anytime. He can hurt my family and me. His uncle and sister are free. How is this justice?” he posed pensively.

Suleiman is at the end of his wits. “Mnyonge hana haki,” (A weak/poor person has no rights), he says, his voice betraying his resolve to remain stoic in the face of the injustice. “If the law truly treated everyone equally, the perpetrator should be in jail right now.”

Both Suleiman and his wife have had to undergo counselling at nearby Kombani Rehabilitation Centre just to stay sane.

“It was good they got help because I have seen the girl’s mother deteriorate mentally. It is not an easy thing for them, especially because when the perpetrator was let go, he sent veiled threats through proxies,” a neighbour – the paralegal – who does not want to be named for fear that she might be a target, told this reporter.

After the accused was released, the family had to move homes to keep their little girl from bumping into the perpetrator and reliving the trauma, or worse, getting hurt again. They also needed to take care of their own wellbeing.

‘Eid Mubarak’ is an Arabic phrase that directly translates to ‘blessed festival’. The irony of what transpired that day has left the family scarred.

In our investigations, some key questions remain unanswered.

One, Salim Said Kuuza had demonstrated that he was a flight risk by going missing immediately after the incident: why was he still given bond? And why was the bond lenient (Sh40,000)?

Two, why weren’t the opinions of the IO, the chief and villagers not considered in the decision to bond-release the accused?

Three, a defilement case, as per Kenyan law, should be expedited and determined within six months: why did it take nearly three years in Mwanakombo’s case? Is this a pointer that the system has loopholes?

Four, an adage goes, Mkono wa serikali ni mrefu (the government has a long hand). With an active warrant of arrest against Salim, why haven’t the police put the vast state resources to use to apprehend this man?

By the time of going to press, Hon Kiongo had not answered whether he was the one who gave bond terms, and why (if true) he was lenient to the perpetrator.

Mwakombo and her family continue to live in fear of what might happen if the accused ever gets to know their whereabouts.

Side Bar

Kwale County continues to face its defilement demons head-on

According to the National Crime Research Centre, defilement cases constituted 22.2 per cent of all crimes reported in Kwale County as of 2020.

More recently, between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024 (one year), the total number of child rights violation cases reported in Kwale was 1480: as per data from the Directorate of Children Services.

Defilement represented 4.4 per cent (65 incidences) of these. It was the third most reported infraction against children in the county after Neglect (57.3 per cent) and custody (12 per cent).

Based on the data, defilement was the leading violent crime against children in the area.

School-going children – from nursery school to high school – are estimated to make up nearly half of the county’s population, which currently is estimated at 866,820.

“Protecting them against abuse is very important for the future of the county and the country at large,” says Hon. Lillian Tsuma Lewa, who was the principal magistrate and head of station at Kwale Law Courts until recently.

The county is slowly turning the tide on defilement as perpetrators receive stiff penalties.

On 16 December, 2024, a man named Athman Hamis was convicted in the Kwale Law Courts to serve a sentence of not less than 20 years after being found guilty of defiling a 13-year-old girl.

“I am satisfied that justice was served,” Hassan Omar*, the father of the adolescent, says. “We are happy that he will be away for a very long time.”

Hamis is now incarcerated at Shimo la Tewa Prison in Mombasa County.

The judicial process of addressing rape and defilement in Kwale has improved over the years, says Lewa.

“We had [in the past] very high sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) cases. We have registered remarkable improvements in both reporting of the incidents and prosecution of the perpetrators,” she says.

In 2022-2023, Kwale was feted to have the best Court Users Committee (CUC) in Kenya.

CUC is a concept rooted in law and judicial policy. It is a committee comprising all stakeholders – from judges, police officers, law enforcement bodies, civil society organisations, human rights players, and elected or nominated leaders from society – who sit regularly (every three or so months) to help identify and address challenges hampering the delivery of judicial services.

“Our CUC was feted in part because we developed standard operating procedures, in which we proposed solutions, for our jurisdiction. The document covers every department in the judicial system and what is expected of everyone,” says Lewa.

In November 2024, Lewa herself was awarded by the International Labour Organisation in conjunction with the US Department of Labour, for standing up for the rights of children.

The same year, she won the Gender Justice Award for her work in upholding justice against sexual and gender-based violence: an award by Equality Now.

In May 2025, Kwale Law Courts was awarded the performance management and measurement understanding (PMMU) award by the judiciary.

In Hon Lewa’s opinion, “Poverty, culture, and illiteracy” are key factors contributing to SGBV in Kwale.

Section 8 of the Sexual Offences Act says: ‘A person who commits an act which causes penetration [sexual] with a child is guilty of an offence termed defilement.’

Part 2 of that law states: ‘A person who commits an offence of defilement with a child aged eleven years or less shall, upon conviction, be sentenced to imprisonment for life.’

Attempted defilement, as covered in the same law, attracts the punishment of serving not less than 10 years.

“The law aims to protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation. Therefore, when an adult has intercourse with a child, it is a criminal offence and the adult would be prosecuted,” Lewa says.