A pastor from Ngong, who sexually assaulted two minors while invoking the name of God, has been handed a 70-year prison sentence.
James Njuguna Kuria was last week found guilty of defiling the children aged 11 and 14 while using religious manipulations on various dates between December 24, 2014 and January 7, 2015.
On Tuesday, August 8, the Milimani magistrate sentenced James Njuguna of the First Born of the Holy Spirit church to 50 years in jail on count one and 20 years on count two. Both sentences will run concurrently.
During the trial, the court heard that the pedophile would tell his innocent victims that his private parts contained oil from God.
One of the victims testified that one morning the preacher called him to his bedroom, blindfolded him and inserted his manhood into his mouth.
The preacher told him that the manhood was oil from God and threatened him not to tell anyone.
The abuse happened again when the boy, 11, was about to resume school; the clergyman called him to his bedroom and this time round he penetrated him.
The boy was not the only victim of the sex abuse as some of his friends were also defiled.
“The accused person told the boys that it was the blood of Jesus entering them and cleansing them when he would defile them,” the court heard.
It was also revealed that the second victim, aged only 14, fell victim to the sex pest when her friend invited her to church.
In July 2015, the girl went to the church without her friend and stayed after the Sunday service for dance practice with other children.
The pastor instructed the six children to assist him with carrying the drums to the store, which was a one-room divided with a curtain.
The preacher directed the girls to move to one side of the partition while the boys remained with him. He directed them to drink olive oil and apply some on their faces.
The convicted pedophile also asked them to repeat the Lord’s prayer after him.
The pastor then proceeded to the girls’ side and asked them to undress and sleep on the bed facing up…. “as he wanted to build a covenant with them.”
He then started defiling them one after the other but when he got to the aforementioned 14-year-old victim, she struggled and he picked up a belt and beat her up.
Pastor James threatened them against telling anyone of the incident.
The preacher then called a boy in and instructed him to have sex with the 14-year-old, while another was instructed to do the same to each of the other girls.
In another heinous incident, the preacher showed the children pornographic material and instructed them to do what they had seen.
The court also heard that the preacher once again directed the children to drink olive oil and apply some on their faces, and then recite the Lord’s prayer seven times.
As they prayed, the court heard, the preacher sodomised three boys and defiled three girls. He then asked the boy to defile the girls.
“He then asked (the 14-year-old) to remove her clothes. He defiled her. Once he was done he hit her on the stomach using a jembe stick,” the court heard.
The girl was later found to be pregnant, which led to the discovery of the pastor’s sickening acts. A DNA test also confirmed that the preacher was the father.
The pastor also visited the victim at her home and hit her on the stomach with a fork jembe to terminate the pregnancy.
“The pastor did the unthinkable, he hit the girl with a jembe to terminate the pregnancy,” Ms Njagi said in her ruling.
In his legal defense, the pastor informed the court that he had been grappling with mental health issues and had been undergoing treatment since 2015.
After considering his claims of mental instability, the court enlisted the expertise of medical professionals to assess his condition, ultimately confirming Kuria’s mental competence.
Magistrate Njagi ruled, “No evidence was presented to the court indicating that the accused individual’s condition hindered him to an extent that he was incapable of handling his responsibilities.”
“It does not get more sick than this, that a grown man can use the Christian faith to sexually molest young children repeatedly.”
“I do find that the prosecution proved their case to the required standard against the accused person… He is convicted as charged as per provisions of Section 215 of the Criminal Procedure Court,” Principal Magistrate Caroline Njagi, sitting in Nairobi, ruled on July 28.
Ms Njagi gave the sex pest 14 days to appeal.
