Police officer sentenced to life in prison for raping a woman

A police officer based in Lamu police station has been sentenced to life imprisonment for raping a woman who had gone to report a case at the station. The accused named Rodgers Ouma, has also been found guilty of abuse of authority to which he will also serve ten years and pay Ksh400,000 damages to the victim. The Director of Public Prosecutions indicated that the prosecution of the case against Mr. Ouma had proven beyond reasonable doubt that the accused had lured the victim to his house at Langoni Police Line in December 2019 where he carried out the heinous act.

While reading his judgement on Wednesday, 1st July 2020, Lamu Principal Magistrate Hon. Allan Temba explained that the woman had on the fateful night walked to Lamu Police Station at 8pm to report that her husband was forcing her to take pills to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. Mr. Ouma then promised to help the woman with the case she had gone to report, winning trust which led the woman to accept his offer for shelter at his house since there was a heavy downpour at the time.

In a statement available to newsrooms, the DPP also confirmed the occurrence of events, ”The woman had braved the rains and was on her way home when somebody stopped her. The person identified himself as Police Officer Ouma from the Lamu station, perused through her complaint, got her mobile number and said he was willing to help”.

The statement goes on to note, ”…the woman trusted the officer as a person in authority, genuinely willing to follow the case. The officer asked that they walk together as they were going in the same direction. He offered her shelter for rains to subside”.

Following the conviction of the accused, the court set Friday as the day for sentence delivery after filing of a Victim Impact Statement by the complainant. Hon. Temba indicated that the said complainant had informed the court through her statement given under oath that the accused would ‘eliminate her’ if released from prison. She has also raised fears saying that shortly after receiving the threats through another police officer, people believed to be policemen and colleagues of Mr. Ouma started trailing her.