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Alex Maina Ochogo, his mother Pacificah Nyakerario and 80-year-old grand- mother Rael Mayieka watched motion- lessly as a Kisii court handed them a total of 55 years in jail for their respective roles in the heinous act of gouging out Baby Brighton Sagini’s eyes on December 13.

The trio watched pensively, apparently resigned to their fate, as Kisii Senior Resident Magistrate Christine Ogweno read out the sentences, handing the main offender Maina, 27 a 40-year jail term, his mother Pacificah, 51, ten years in jail and his grey-haired granny, Rael a lenient five- year sentence for the gruesome attack in what stands out as one of the fastest cases to be dispensed by Kenyan courts.

In meting out the sentences, Ms Ogweno said that she had considered the accused persons’ probation report which detailed that Maina, a Class Two dropout would face hostilities from the local community in Ikuruma village, Marani sub-county, Kisii County where the crime was committed.

“The community is hostile towards Mai- na who dropped out in Class Two and has threatened to lynch him if he is released. The probation officer is reluctant for him to be freed,” Ogweno noted.

Husband murdered

Equally, the community was unforgiving towards Pacificah, a Class Three drop-out with 10 children who had been accused of murdering her husband although the matter never proceeded to the courts.

She however noted that the local community was a bit sympathetic towards Rael as she was the one who cared for baby Sagini and his sister, Shantel Kemunto before the heinous act was committed.

She however noted that all the three accused persons deserved their respective sentences for their actions.

“They used a dangerous weapon to injure Sagini who was vulnerable and at a tender age without provocation and the sister saw. They were family members who were supposed to care for him,” the Magistrate said.

Initially, the trio had been charged with attempted murder but the charge was amended to causing grievous harm contrary to Section 234 of the Penal Code. They were represented by Kerosi Ondieki and Winston Magara.

Magara sought lenient sentences for the three suspects given their ages and poor background, terming them first offenders. He opposed the prosecution’s prayer that the court hands the trio life sentences, saying this would be akin to wiping out a whole generation.

Humane sentence

The magistrate however noted that the accused persons are entitled to a humane sentence to enable them to be rehabilitated even if they failed to do it to the victim.

Two weeks ago, the trio was found guilty of gouging out the eyes of three-year-old Sagini in Kisii County.

The trio was convicted after the court heard the evidence of Baby Sagini, his sister and another key witness identified as PW11 who testified about the events sur- rounding the horrendous act.

The magistrate noted that the minor in his evidence identified his grandmother as the person who gouged out his eyes.

“There is nothing ordinary in gouging out a living human being’s eyes, let alone a child’s eyes. What would make someone perform such a cruel act on a child? What goes into the mind of a perpetrator like Alex Maina Ochogo? Why would someone do this to his kin? What is worth so much that would justify the removal of an innocent child’s eyes? What would motivate someone to commit such evil leaving a child permanently blind? Is it land? Witchcraft? Discipline? I am not persuaded that there is a good enough justification for such brutality,” said the Magistrate.

The trial magistrate noted Sagini was a child whose eyes were gouged out in the most scandalous and vicious of crimes by not a stranger but by members of his family who were supposed to offer him love, care and protection.

“His cousin held the knife which caused him severe trauma and handed him a life in permanent darkness. This was done be- hind his aunt’s house, a few metres away from the grandmother’s house, aided and abetted by his grandmother and aunt,” she

noted. She noted the three then stuffed him inside a gunny bag and put him un- der a bed, in a dirty and poorly ventilated room where he possibly spent the night, probably presumed dead.

W11 who was a key witness and who was in a relationship with Maina, revealed the events of the fateful day that baby Sagini lost eyesight.

She explained that she was at the homestead on the material date of December 13, 2022. Pacifica and Rael had gone for a burial that morning while Alex and Thomas, who is the stepfather to baby Sagini, had gone out to drink. While she was at the farm near the river, Baby Sagini and his sister identified as C.K. passed her on their way to the river and also on their way back home.

Later on, she heard Baby Sagini crying, she went to where the child was behind Pacifica’s house and then proceeded to Maina’s house and sat on a bench next to the house.

Threat to stab

While seated at the bench, she saw Maina enter the house and emerge with a knife. When she asked what the knife was for, Maina threatened to stab her and then proceeded behind his mother’s house in- side the napier grass which was across the bench. The court heard that Maina then gorged out Junior’s eyes one after another and then went to his mother’s house and told the mother what he had done.

“He then told them not to say anything. I left the bench and moved towards Paci- fica’s house. Maina chased after me while holding the knife, I ran to Kegogi,” the wit- ness had told the court.

Later in the evening after she returned home, she saw Maina, Pacifica and Rael put Junior inside a sack and took him to Pacifica’s house. Pacifica and Rael held

the sack while Maina put him inside the sack. She stated that Pacifica and Rael had returned from the burial with chang’aa which they took to Pacifica’s house and the three partook in the chang’aa while dancing while the child was under the bed inside a sack in Pacifica’s house.

Later on that evening, Pacifica left the house with her daughter Moraa and the witness saw Maina escort her to the bus station carrying a chicken and several clothes.

“Alex returned later on that night while drunk. He said the mother had embarked on a journey. When I asked him where the sack was, he said he had taken it far away near the maize plantation. He then in- instructed me to pack my things and leave his house,” the witness had told the court. The Magistrate while convicting the trio noted that though the witness was challenged, she expressed herself better through signalling and use of her hands and understood the questions posed to her by the prosecution and the defence and gave answers to the best of her capacity.

“From her demeanour during her testimony, she appeared frightened of the accused persons and in particular the first and second accused persons. She constantly reassured herself of her security while at the scene. I observed that she was intimidated by their mere presence,” noted the Magistrate. The court noted that baby Sagini was not given a congenial and healthy environment to grow.

“Evidence adduced throughout show a consistent pattern of a child growing in an abusive environment where he was brutally denied basic rights to survival as should any normal child,” the magistrate ruled. Granny Rael was further convicted for failing to provide the minor with the parental care entrusted to her.