I did not molest child, woman serving 15 years for defilement insists

 “It is hard to imagine that a person with dreadlocks and running businesses and with mature looks was classified as underage"

When Judith Wandera walked into a nightclub in Kisumu one fateful Sunday night in 2016 to enjoy reggae music, she had no idea that the events that would later follow would condemn her to 15 years in prison.

It is at the club where the 24-year-old mother of one met her lover, who would later turn out to be a minor aged 16 years old, according to court records.

He had all the traits of a grown man, the woman claims.

According to Judith, the boy had dreadlocks and showered her with goodies.

When The Nairobian caught up with her at Kodiaga Women’s Prison, Judith still insisted she was innocent and claimed that the boy’s mother had lied about the age of her son.

Last week, the High Court in Kisumu dismissed her appeal in which she was seeking to overturn her 15-year conviction by a lower court that found her guilty of defiling the boy on various dates last year.

“I had a relationship with an adult and not a child and I am still struggling to come to terms with this conviction, that I will spend the next 15 years behind bars because the boy’s mother lied to court about his age,” said Judith.

She recounted the good moments she shared with the boy and even said that since she was convicted last year, the boy has been visiting her in prison and bringing her personal effects.

On the day they met, she said, they had shared contacts and the boy even bought her drinks at a club where entry is always restricted to adults only.

“After that, he would call me and send me text messages and we started having an affair,” she says.

She denies that the boy was a Class Seven pupil, adding that he was a boda boda operator who used to ply his trade near Kamas in Kisumu.

In addition, she claims, the boy was running a car washing business in the same place.

Judith believes that the count of defilement she was convicted with was a personal vendetta from the mother of the boy who was against their relationship.

“It is hard to imagine that a person with dreadlocks and running businesses and with mature looks was classified as underage. I am still in shock,” she says.

As their relationship grew stronger, she narrates, the boy would visit her at her place and even spend nights with her. He would also give her money and buy her other things she needed for upkeep.

Even prior to her arrest, the boy had spent two nights at her place before they were arrested by police officers, she added.

After the arrest, Judith was charged with two counts: one being that of engaging in an indecent act with a child, a crime she admitted to committing, but said she did not know he was a child.

Now, however, she says her lack of proper knowledge of the law also made her lose the case and questioned the evidence that was produced to prove the age of the boy.

Interestingly, Judith admits that when the boy appeared in court after he had shaved his dreadlocks, he looked a bit younger.

She however insists that he was still an adult.

“It was my first time to be arrested and I really found it hard to comprehend the case and even ask the right questions because I did not even have money to hire an advocate to represent me,” she says.

Witnesses, including the minor’s parents who testified during the course of the proceedings, said the duo had been arrested twice by police and cautioned against the affair.

The boy’s mother said they opposed the relationship and warned the woman to stay away from her son but she refused.

 Judith Wandera.

Nyakundi Mukaya who prosecuted the case told the court that medical evidence from specimens collected from the duo confirmed that the woman and the schoolboy had been having an intimate relationship.

He noted that the boy had lived with the accused for more than four months.

After the rescue, he added, the boy was taken to a correctional facility before he was released back to his parents.

The boys’ parents told the court that their son stopped taking school seriously after he met the woman.

They sought the intervention of police after the boy started living with her.

In her defence, Judith said she did not know her lover was a minor. She said the boy was also a drug addict by the time they met.

Last week’s appeal verdict was too much for Judith’s mother to bear. She fainted along the court corridors on realising that her daughter’s fate seems to have been sealed to play out in jail for 15 years.

“I was hoping that the court would at least reduce the jail sentence. I am a victim of falsehoods that was peddled by the mother of the alleged victim,” Judith insists.

She added that there should be a review on how age assessment is done as well as the age of consent adding that, “Some people maliciously lie to bring misery on others”.

As part of her efforts to ensure that she learns new technical skills in prison, she has started practising how to make clothes.

“What pains me most is that my 10-year-old son is now going to suffer and I cannot stop thinking about him,” she adds.