A Kenyan Court in Mombasa has released a catholic priest on a rare mission to educate congregants about sexual offences after finding him guilty of assaulting a 16-year-old girl, who was a member of the youth group at his church in 2020.
Father Dominic Muli Nzioka was first sentenced by a lower court last year to seven years in prison for committing a crime against a minor.
However on appeal, a higher court in Mombasa decided to vary the sentence even though acknowledging that the lower court had correctly found the priest guilty of the offence.
“The appellant having breached the Covid-19 protocols and the church regulations, as well as defying the victim’s mother not to interact with her daughter, makes this court believe that the trial magistrate was proper in finding that evidence had been proved beyond reasonable doubt. However, this court sets aside the seven-year-jail term and substitutes thereof three years under supervision of a probation officer,” the judge was quoted by local publication to have said.
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As part of that probation, the priest will spread the “gospel” about Sexual Offences Acts for at least one Sunday every month. That task will be closely monitored by a parish head and a probation officer, who will prepare a report to the court.
However, the decision by the court hasn’t been welcomed by rights groups who are outraged by the ruling, describing it as an injustice to the girl.
“Girls and women in Kenya are entitled to equal benefits and equal protection of the law as provided in Article 27(1), and the court’s decision also violates our equal protection rights under the Constitution of Kenya 2010,” lobby group End Femicide KE Movement is quoted by local media to have said.
