How Magistrate's confusion landed student 15-year jail sentence

There was an error resulting in a conviction. [iStockphoto]

If a magistrate had not confused the numbers in his judgment, a schoolboy who was accused of rape would not have stepped into a prison in his life.

The boy loathes the day the Chief Magistrate made a grave error by confusing numbers between him and his classmate who was to be jailed.

The boy was charged alongside 11 others with an offense of gang rape, a case the court said he deserved to go to jail for at least 15 years.

He, however, appealed the magistrate’s decision arguing that the lower court erred by jailing him while there was no evidence that he had participated in the heinous act.

In the case, the court heard that the 12 boys had on July 25, 2019, raped a female classmate at school in Nyahururu.

It however emerged that the boy was innocent as the person who was said to have locked the door from the inside and gagged the victim’s mouth was the 12th accused person.

In the case, the magistrate found the first and second accused persons were the ones who raped the victim.

She also indicated that despite the fourth and 11th accused persons having not raped the girl, they were accomplices as one tripped the victim while another locked the door. The third, fifth, sixth, and 12th accused persons were released.

The 12th accused person, the court heard, was a different person who was set free instead of the appellant.

However, upon appeal, the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) admitted that the magistrate ought to have acquitted the petitioner.

He stated that the boy (then) did not participate in the heinous act; however, a slip of the pen sent him to prison where he was paying for the sins of someone else.

The accused also faced an alternative charge of committing an indecent act with an adult. They pleaded guilty.

In the case, the girl testified that on the fateful day at around 4.30pm after a chemistry exam, the teacher sent them to take apparatus to the store.

After, she returned to collect a calculator while another female student went for her pencil. As they left the laboratory, the boys chased the other classmate and she remained inside.

The court heard that the third accused then entered with all other accused persons. One of them locked the door and gagged her with a paper. She struggled with them but one of them, who was the fourth accused tripped her and she fell.

Overpowered, the court heard that two boys raped her in turns as others watched. It was however mentioned that despite the appellant being called by the other boys, he did not participate in the gang rape act.

Justice Charles Kariuki ordered the appellant’s release noting that the error resulted to an innocent boy being sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment.

“The prosecution concedes that, the 12th accused was one convicted by the trial court and not the 11th accused based on the evidence presented before the trial,” Justice Kariuki ruled.

Pointing out that, “This court after reviewing the record agrees that there was an error resulting to conviction of the appellant thus the court makes orders the conviction against appellant is quashed and sentence set aside.”