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A man has just been released from prison after spending 17 years for a crime he never committed. Worse, this miscarriage of justice was the result of connivance between police and the man’s wife and brother. Even more terrible is that the entire court system proved completely incompetent, or complicit, in validating badly flawed evidence.

Daniel Wanyeki, 59, was jailed for 20 years for ‘defiling’ his two daughters, aged seven and nine, in 2007. He appealed. The Appeal Court, in its wisdom, enhanced it to life. Given how badly flawed the evidence was, it’s very worrying that the Upper Bench actually found circumstances that were so aggravating they literally condemned the man to die in prison.

How many innocent men are rotting in jail after the Appeal Court dismissed their claims of innocence the same way it failed Wanyeki? The Chief Justice needs to order a review of rape cases where conviction was clearly unsafe.

Wanyeki was only released when his daughter, a full 17 years later, for whatever reasons, confessed to having been coached to lie by her mother, uncle and the policeman investigating the case. The other daughter supposedly defiled had refused to lie!

This man’s life is destroyed. The life of his children is equally destroyed. Strangely, the usually vocal fighters for the right of Kenyans, including the Law Society of Kenya, Amnesty International, Kenya Human Rights Commission, are deathly quiet. Is human rights an issue only when it is politically charged? Who will stand with this man?

Worse, despite clear police misconduct in this case, the Independent Policing Oversight Authority’s silence is deafening. Really?

Chief Justice Martha Koome and Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja must give this man an unreserved apology for the monumental failure of the institutions they head that led to such gross miscarriage of justice.

This case is so serious it calls for an independent and thorough inquiry as to what went wrong. It has become normalised for men to be wrongly accused of rape when they have differences with female relatives or associates. This trend must be strongly discouraged. The country must take this case as a pivotal moment for deep soul-searching.

Several men have in recent years been released after courts quashed their rape convictions, after their accusers recanted their evidence. The accusers have walked away scot-free! What a travesty of justice! The justice system has refused to hold accountable these liars. Is it because they are women?

To add insult to injury, the court has ordered Wanyeki to undergo a fresh trial. When the evidence that convicted him has been proven to be false? Mind-boggling!

One would have thought that by now Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Renson Ingonga should have ordered the arrest and locking up of Wanyeki’s wife, brother, the daughter who lied, and the police officer who was involved in this case, to face charges of perjury and malicious prosecution. Perjury penalties should be graduated in a way that the gravity of the case one perjures themselves on should be the guiding parameter in sentencing. Wanyeki’s accusers should face life in jail for their crimes.

There should be an independent parliamentary inquiry into this matter. The State must fully compensate Wanyeki for malicious prosecution and wrongful conviction, and his lost prime years.

It is time to take a fresh look at the rules of evidence and prosecution processes that lead to convictions in rape cases. A DNA test report should form a primary part of the evidence, just like postmortem reports are primary evidentiary material in murder cases.

The DPP goes to court in January to say whether he will prosecute Wanyeki again, in a case whose evidence has collapsed. This is just raking the man over hot coals, thrusting him into reliving the 17 years of trauma he has just been rescued from. Ingonga, just drop the case. This monumental failure started from your office and you should not try to sanitise it!

 

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