Nairobi judge quashes ‘rape’ convict’s 10-year jail term

NAIROBI: A man jailed for 10 years after being convicted of rape has been freed.

Meshack Maingi got his freedom back after a successful appeal against the sentence handed by a Magistrate’s Court after the High Court ruled the woman involved consented to the sex.

A year after the conviction, the High Court ruled Mr Maingi was unfairly jailed as the 18-year-old woman was party to the goings-on.

“The complainant in this regard clearly testified the appellant (Maingi) had sex with her, which sex appears to have been consensual as she did not testify to any force used by the appellant or lack of consent on her part.

“It is my view her testimony leaves no doubt there was penetration, and therefore the facts cannot support a charge of indecent act. The learned trial magistrate, therefore, erred in finding the evidence showed the appellant had committed an indecent act,”  High Court Judge Pauline Nyamweya ruled.

Maingi had been charged with rape and an alternative count of committing an indecent act with an adult. The Magistrate’s Court dropped the rape  charge but found him guilty on the second count.

The court heard the woman left her house for school on March 8, last year, when two men approached her, one of whom was Maingi. She testified she would later find herself in his house where they had sex.

He took her home two days later where she explained the whole ordeal to her parents and upon examination at a local health centre, she was found pregnant.

The woman’s mother said she had reported her daughter missing, but found out she was with Maingi.

“I allow the appellant’s appeal and quash his conviction for the offence of committing an indecent act with an adult contrary to Section 11(1) of the Sexual Offences Act, 2006. I also set aside the sentence imposed upon him for the said conviction and order the appellant be set at liberty forthwith,” the judge ruled.