High Court frees man jailed 100 years for defiling 4 minors, cites weak evidence

The High Court in Nairobi has quashed the conviction and 100-year prison sentence imposed on Stephen Nzuki Mutisya, the former director of Scream Africa Children’s Home based in Utawala, Nairobi County. 

Justice Alexander Muasya Muteti, delivering the judgment, freed Nzuki, who had been found guilty of defiling several boys after finding that he was the victim of a deliberate frame-up and that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

The trial magistrate Zainab Abdul three years ago sentenced Nzuki to a 100-year jail term for defiling four minors at a children's home in Nairobi between the years of 2010 and 2016.

But Justice Muteti set aside the conviction and the sentenced describing the same as "unsafe" and ordered Nzuki’s immediate release.

“The evidence placed before the trial court was barely adequate and riddled with material contradictions,” the judge said. 

“This court finds the convictions unsafe and the sentences cannot stand.”

Nzuki had been convicted by a lower court in 2022 on three counts of defilement and one count of committing an indecent act with a child. 

He was sentenced to 50, 20, 20, and 10 years, respectively,  the sentences to run consecutively, totaling 100 years in prison.

The prosecution alleged that Nzuki had sexually assaulted several boys under his care at the Utawala-based home between 2010 and 2016.

However, during the appeal, Nzuki’s lawyer, John Swaka, argued that the charges were a fabrication meant to remove his client from the management of the home. 

The High Court agreed, finding evidence of what Justice Muteti termed a “coordinated scheme to frame the appellant.”

The judgment singled out a teacher, Joseph Muraya, who testified for the prosecution. 

The court noted that Muraya met the boys after they were expelled from Scream Africa and helped them make the reports to a children’s officer.

 “It is not lost on this court that Mr. Muraya was later employed at Pehucci Children’s Home, the very institution where the boys were taken after their expulsion. This coincidence cannot be ignored,” Justice Muteti observed

According to the court, the District Children’s Officer testified that the minors were brought to her not to report abuse, but because they had been expelled for inciting others.

Justice Muteti said this detail undermined the prosecution’s case, describing the sexual abuse allegations as an afterthought.

The court also noted a fatal lack of medical evidence. 

Medical examinations showed no signs of defilement or anal injuries on any of the alleged victims. 

While a medical witness said such injuries might heal quickly, the judge ruled that this left the case resting on “uncorroborated oral testimony whose credibility was seriously in question.”

Justice Muteti also drew an adverse inference from the prosecution’s failure to call key witnesses, including a woman named Brigid, who the defense claimed was behind a plot to take over the home.

“The failure to call critical witnesses, whose evidence would have clarified these allegations, suggests their testimony would not have supported the prosecution,” he said

The judge further faulted the trial court for disregarding Nzuki’s defense, which included witnesses who testified about the alleged conspiracy. 

He said the long delay in reporting the alleged incidents, inconsistencies in the victims’ ages, and alterations on age assessment documents compounded the doubt.

“The totality of the evidence points to a scheme rather than genuine complaints of sexual abuse,” Justice Muteti stated .

“The appellant ought not to have been convicted.”

The judge therefore quashed all the convictions, set aside the sentences, and ordered that Stephen Nzuki Mutisya be released forthwith, unless held for any other lawful reason.