From: ouko joachim omolo
Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News

BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA

After a longer week in South Sudan covering the referendum I am back in Kenya briefly. In Kenya the news that struck me most is the recent adverts on Sunday Nation by Comboni missionaries that Rev Father Renato Kizito Sesana is innocent of child molestation.

The court ruled that the photos appearing on Monday June 15, 2009 on Kenya Television Network (KTN) 9 pm local time news bulletin were doctored. The news portrayed KTN reporter Evelyn Wamboi interviewing two young men whose faces were hidden behind silhouettes.

The interviewees alleged that Comboni Missionary Rev Fr Renato Kizito Sesana had sexually abused them during his time as a charity worker in Kenya. The Father in a PDF signed statement on June 16, 2009 posted to our Regional News condemned with a strongest term possible any abuse of children or any other human being.

According to the Father that particular story smelt fish, given that over the years he did a bit of research in interrogation techniques and using his experience he noted immediately that the little visible body movement and tone of the voice of the alleged victims was a bit suspect.

He noted in a statement that this interview by Evelyn Wamboi was either rehearsed or she was very gullible or she was very disparate to make a huge expose that could catapult her career.

Those who watched the news, the picture showed the face of Fr Kizito superimposed a naked body either a man or woman. It is against the background that Fr Kizito says in a statement that this was impossible to determine the gender since KTN had “censored” the naked part of the body but had left the face as to “proof” that it was Fr Kizito.

He concludes in a statement that this was obviously doctored photo because the skin tone and lighting between the face and the body was totally different. He says he could not have sex with the boys, considering that he is almost 70 years old.

Fr Kizito says he used the Google which took only few minutes to trace an original photo, from an internet porn website, into which his face was superimposed into.

In a similar case, in July 2007 when Zimbabwe’s state Television and the newspaper published photographs that portrayed Buluway Archbishop Pius Ncube have been having an affair with a married woman he said the photos were doctored (see Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko’s article- The East African- September 17, 207).

Although Ncube denied, the woman confirmed in Buluwayo court that they have been having an affair for the past two years and that she even had a kid with him.

Fr Kizito recommends that all the law enforcement arms that are concerned should immediately arrest and interrogate the reporters at KTN who prepared this story since this was not only unethical but also criminal.

He also recommends that the trustees (Michael Owiso and Michael Ochieng) who obviously framed him should be arrested and charged accordingly. If this happens it would mean that KTN and the trustees will pay dearly to Fr Kizito.

All the same, while it could be true that Fr Kizito is innocent, one fact remains that Kenya has not done much to safeguard the interests of the child (Daily Nation, August 29, 2001).

In Kenyan, any child who claims she or he has been sexually assaulted can hardly be heard in court because the law says only a child who is able to explain clearly how the crime occurred can be hard.

It explains why in Kenya many cases of child sexual assault have not been given any hearing in court because of the lack of particular law that protects the right of children.

The best example as the paper reports is where a six-year-old primary school pupil who had been a victim of repeated sex assaults by her headmaster, who infected her with venereal disease, was left free without charges. It explains further how Kenya courts cannot be trusted.

According to the story the headmaster who was arrested and locked up at Embakasi police station for six days was later released without being charged because according to the court there was no evidence that he assaulted the minor.

In a similar case, the Salvation Army Church leader in Kiambu who on August 1, 2001 defiled a six-year-old girl was released barely half-an hour after he was arrested due to lack of evidence.

Similarly in Kisumu, even though a police moved fast on August 29, 2001 to arrest a senior police officer in connection of a rape case to a minor (East African Standard, August 30, 2001), the officer, a senior sergeant based at Kisumu airport police allegedly raped a nine-year-old girl.

The evidence by Ms Angela Akinyi, mother to the girl who said the suspect went her house and raped her daughter leaving her badly injured and bleeding profusely and that when the suspect fled when Akinyi raised an alarm, still the police insisted there was no evidence.

The victim who was a standard four pupil at a school in Maseno division at that time and had been living with her mother during the school holidays also confirmed that the police man molested her.

Owing to my article (Daily Nation August 27, 1999), the problem of sexual abuse of children is not peculiar to Kenya. It is a problem that is afflicting many societies worldwide and which calls for serious action.

In Ghana, for instance, the traditional priests are continually abusing young girls. With the “Trokosi” practice which is believed to have been instituted by African ancestors to check crimes such as stealing, the innocent girls have become victims of sexual abuse for the remedy of sins others have committed.

Tradition has it in Ghana that if someone has his or her property stolen and the thief fails to surrender; it is believed that the gods of the Trokosi shrine will vent their spleen on all members of the criminal’s family. To ensure that this does not happen, virgin girls from that family are taken to the shrine for traditional priests to have sex with.

In Australia, because the abuse has become public, priests are not to be left with children for fear that they may abuse them. Glass windows are to be installed in church confessionals to prevent paedophile scandals, according to the 1997 draft code of conduct by priests. Under the draft code, confessionals should have glass-viewing panels, a move which would force the renovation of virtually every Catholic Church in the country.

Note- My colleague Joseph Adero Ngala is writing something on the situation of Ivory Coast due to be published very soon-we are also appealing to our readers to be sending us some articles for circulation- Editor

People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
P O Box 14877
Nairobi
00800, Westlands
Kenya

Tel 254-20-4441372
Website : www.peopleforpeaceafrica.org