82-year-old Ethiopian in court over rape of minor in Mandera
Ethiopian Adan Bayo Abdi, 82, at the magistrate’s chambers at the Mandera Law Courts on August 26, 2015. He is accused of defiling a nine-year-old girl. His case failed to proceed because there was no interpreter. PHOTO | MANASE OTSIALO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- The man had arrived in the village two days before he committed the offence, added the girl's guardian.
- Mrs Athur Hussein Hassan said she heard screams from the small hut where the accused lived and saw the young girl ran out.
- The accused has denied the offence, maintaining that he had only crossed into Kenya to visit his son and that he is too old to engage in sex.
A case in which an 82-year old Ethiopian man is accused of defiling a nine-year old girl was Wednesday deferred to September because the court did not have an interpreter.
Mandera Senior Resident Magistrate Peter Areri directed that Mr Adan Bayo Abdi appear in court for the mention of the case on September 9.
The case will be heard on September 16.
Mr Bayo is alleged to have defiled the minor on May 29 at about 7pm in Neboi Location after he lured the girl into his house using a mango.
ILLEGALLY IN KENYA
According to the case file, the accused is serving a one-month imprisonment for being in Kenya illegally, after it was established upon his arrest that he was an Ethiopian citizen with no valid permit or passport to allow him to stay in Kenya.
The girl, according to her guardian, is an orphan and is speech-impaired.
The man had arrived in their village two days before he committed the offence, added the guardian.
A witness, Mrs Athur Hussein Hassan, said she heard screams from the small hut where the accused lived and saw the young girl run out.
Upon inquiry, the girl, using sign language, pointed at her genital area and she had a mango in her hands.
“I reported the matter to our chief, who arrested the old man the following day and took him to Mandera Police Station,” said Mrs Hassan when she appeared in court as a prosecution witness.
The accused has denied the offence, maintaining that he had only crossed into Kenya to visit his son and that he is too old to engage in sex.
Rape cases in Mandera go unreported, as many end up being handled privately, with the accused being fined several goats and the complainant left to live with stigma and societal rejection.
