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Primary school children absconded classes to watch pornographic movies in the house of a 45-year-old man charged with child pornography, a court heard.
The pupils allegedly absconded classes everyday between 9:30am and 11am.
Tom Kidemi, a father of six, is accused of showing pornographic movies to children aged between 12 and 14 with the intention of making them engage in sexual acts.
The disappearance of the pupils from school came to light after one of the parents who had a child in the school reported that her son had not reached home after leaving school.
The parent according to a teacher who testified in court visited the school early the following morning to inquire about her son’s whereabouts.
“The parent came to school and reported his child did not return home from school, we checked our class register and indeed found out the boy was in school the previous Friday,” said the teacher.
The minor allegedly had not reached home though they were released that day, a Friday, to go home.
The teacher said they tried to inquire on the whereabouts of the boy’s whereabouts from other pupils who informed them that he had been seen near Railways near the accused person’s home dressed in his home clothes.
According to the teacher pupils interrogated said Kidemi would offer them sugarcane.
One of the children narrated to the teachers that they went to his house to watch pornography and named other children.
The children named were called and separately asked what they would go and do at the man’s house.
“They (the children) independently and individually narrated to us that they go to Tom’s house to watch pornography. We got deeper into investigating and found the same children have been absconding class every day from 9:30am and 11am,” narrated the teacher.
The teacher informed the court that one of the children revealed that Kidemi had forced him to have sex with a mentally retarded girl in his house and gave each of them Sh50.
Kidemi was charged with forcing children to engage in sexual acts, promoting child prostitution, promoting child pornography and promoting sex among children. He denied all the charges before Nakuru Resident Magistrate Wilson Kitur.
The hearing of the case will proceed on April 19, 2018.
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