Mombasa Court frees schoolgirl who wants to get married

A female student was yesterday arrested by county askaris after she was spotted with a man in a lodging in Mombasa County. Nineteen-year-old Catherine Ngoja, who wore school uniform, had accompanied her boyfriend, Kengo Joto, 30, to a lodging in Likoni. PHOTO: COURTESY

A female student was yesterday arrested by county askaris after she was spotted with a man in a lodging in Mombasa County. Nineteen-year-old Catherine Ngoja, who wore school uniform, had accompanied her boyfriend, Kengo Joto, 30, to a lodging in Likoni.

The man, a Class Five dropout and Ms Ngoja were both charged with being a public nuisance.Mombasa Senior Resident Magistrate Martin Rabera, who appeared stunned by Ngoja’s confession freed the two with a stern warning after concluding that the crime they were charged with could not stand in law or lead to conviction.

Ngoja, a student at Kichaka Simba Girls Secondary School in Mombasa told Magistrate Rabera that she wanted to get married to her boyfriend. “I do not want to learn; I want to get married to my boyfriend. We love each other,” said Ngoja, who left some parents present in court in anger.

Mr Joto confessed his love for the teenage girl and expressed his intentions to marry her as soon as possible, adding that it did not matter that she had not yet finished school. “I am 30 years old and not yet married. I love her and I intend to marry her,” said Joto.

Magistrate Rabera said, “I am discharging them because of the style the investigating officer filed the charge sheet, otherwise I could have convicted them.”

He further warned Joto to stop seeing Ngoja until she finished her studies, otherwise he risked jail term.

He said: “The court warns you to let the girl learn. If you are found with her again you will be convicted. The love you proclaim for her is false. She is young, let her make her own life.”