US teen charged with sexual abuse of Kenyan children
Mathew Dhuram is photographed here with some of the Kenyan orphans whose faces have been blurred to protect identity. PHOTO | COURTESY
A US teenager has been charged with sexually abusing Kenyan children at a children’s home in Kenya.
Matthew Durham , 19, was a volunteer at the Upendo Children’s Home in Nairobi four months ago where the abuse allegedly took place, a statement on the Federal Bureau of Investigation website said.
Durham was charged in Edmond, Oklahoma on July 18 after his arrest the previous day.
He is accused of engaging in sexual acts with multiple children, male and female, ranging from ages four to ten.
The crimes are alleged to have taken place between April and June 2014 during his last missionary visit to Kenya.
“Durham stayed at the children’s home in an “overflow bunk” rather than at an offsite facility with a sponsor family where he stayed on prior visits,” the statement read.
The FBI report states that Durham had previously volunteered at Upendo Children’s home in June 2012 and June 2013.
The home offers food, shelter and clothes for abandoned children.
Since his arrest, Durham has appeared before a US Magistrate Judge in Oklahoma City and is being held without bond.
His preliminary charge is scheduled for August 1, 2014, reads the statement on the FBI website.
Durham faces up to life in prison if convicted of the offense of “illicit sexual conduct with underage children”.
The case is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Embassy in Kenya, and the United States Department of State Diplomatic Security Criminal Investigates Office.
