By Boniface Mwangi
The Catholic Church in Machakos runs a children’s home named ‘Martyrs of Uganda’ near Kinatwa, on the Machakos-Wote road. The home also houses a primary school which is open to the local community. Last month, on Friday 15th February, one boy at the primary school reported being sodomized by the school’s cook, one Katuku Mutuku. He was rushed to a nearby hospital and the medical report clearly indicated that the boy was raped.
On interrogation, he revealed that some of the orphans at the school had confessed to each other about being sodomized. The local police was notified but did nothing. Instead, the Officer Commanding Police Station opted to investigate the case of only one boy, but with little care or concern.
The boy’s mum reached out for help on the 24th of February. Kenya Human Rights Commission visited the police and then went to the children’s department in Machakos County, who took up the issue and were shocked that the cops had never bothered to inform their officials. They immediately went to the school and interviewed the kids and realized 8 more boys had been repeatedly raped for nearly 3 years. They rescued these kids, picked up the case and took a decision to immediately close the children’s home.
All this time, the leadership of the Machakos Catholic Church was indifferent and didn’t even resist the closure. The locals indicate that child abuse in the home has gone on for the last 10 years and it’s only in the last 3 years that the issue has come to light.
There are hundreds of boys and men out here who’ve gone through the children’s home and the school who were raped during that period, but have never had an opportunity to ask for help and get counselling. The Machakos Catholic Church didn’t resist the closure of the home as their way of covering up the true depth of this rot that’s lasted a decade.
This church, the local priest, the school staffers and local OCS need to be held to a higher standard of duty. KHRC filed the case under OB 41 of 15/02/2019 at Machakos Police Station. As we speak, this cook, Mr. Katuku, hasn’t been arrested.
Can the police please get this man, Katuku, the priest, the home’s director and school head behind bars? Honestly, what’s going on in the Kenyan schooling system, and this church? #SemaUkweli #TeamCourage Sema Ukweli Kenya
Leave a Reply