Shock as 40-year-old woman defiles boy in Kiandutu slums

A section of people living with disabilities from Kiandutu slums in Thika at Thika Police Station on Tuesday. They called on the police to take stern action against the defiler. [Photo: Kamau Maichuhie]

Police have arrested a 40-year-old woman suspected to have defiled a 17-year-old blind boy in Kiandutu slums.

The suspect, a mother of four children, was picked up on Tuesday in the sprawling slums following an outcry from people living with disabilities.

By last evening, she was being held at Thika Police Station.

According to the boy, the suspect, who is his neighbor, sneaked into his room in the dark.

“It was around 1 am. She hurriedly started to undress me. She forced me to have sex with her and later threatened to harm me if I dared raise the alarm,” he said.

The boy lives alone in the shanty which his aunt rented for him two years ago.

Itching pain

He said he had kept quiet for fear of being victimised until two days ago when he started having lower abdominal pain and itching when he passed urine. 

He claimed that when the pain become unbearable, he confided in one of his neighbours.

He claimed that the suspect had been trying to persuade him to start begging in the streets.

A group of people living with disabilities stormed the Thika Police Station, demanding that action be taken against the suspect.

The woman denied the allegations, terming them baseless and malicious.

Persons with disabilities in the slum pitched camp at the police station, claiming that some of their colleagues had suffered similar attacks in the past.

They accused the police of not taking past reports seriously.

Community health workers based in the slums also accused area administrators of not taking reports of assault on disabled persons seriously. 

“Whenever they complain against some injustices committed against them, they are mostly looked down upon. Nobody seems to believe and take them seriously,” said one community worker, Eunice Mwangi

Thika OCPD Willy Simba called for calm, saying the suspect would be arraigned in court once investigations are complete.