A secondary school principal in Kitui County, who is facing charges of defiling a form four student, attempted to silence the victim’s family with a cash bribe.
Samuel Matuvi Kimanzi, the Mosa Mixed Secondary School principal, is said to have offered Sh200,000 to the guardian of the orphaned girl with a view to killing the case.
An audio clip obtained by the Nation indicates that Kimanzi called the victim’s uncle, Fred Nyamai, pleading with him to help him sabotage the case and save his career.
He is heard suggesting to Mr Nyamai that his niece be persuaded to withdraw the accusations by telling police that she had been asked by some teachers to frame him.
Unknown to the School head, the girl’s uncle recorded the phone conversation that lasted a little over ten minutes. Nyamai also turned down the bribe saying justice for the orphaned girl whose parents died 12 years ago cannot be traded off with money.
The uncle then reported the matter to police and provided the audio recording as evidence.
The Principal appeared before Chief magistrate Marianne Murage on Wednesday and denied the rape charges. He was released on a Sh200,000 bond with a surety of a similar amount or an alternative cash bail of Sh50,000.
The hearing will commence on September 3, 2018. 10 witnesses have been lined up by the prosecution to testify in the case.
The Principal is said to have sent the school matron on off duty leaving the female students without an official caretaker on the night of May 21, 2018.
He is alleged to have stormed the girls’ dormitory on the pretext of checking if they were all in. He then isolated the victim and took her to a nearby fence and defiled her.
The 58-year-old principal was set to retire from teaching service in two years.
