A man who was convicted of defiling his neighbour’s 11-year-old daughter has been jailed for life by a local Kenyan court.

Senior resident magistrate Jackie Kibosia handed down the sentence to Kelvin Okelo Ouma after he found him guilty of the offence.

Kibosia said she has considered the probation report that indicated that the victim was still traumatised by the ordeal she went through on October 28, 2016 which has affected her performance in school.

Ouma, who was a shopkeeper at the time of committing the offence, was convicted of defiling the minor after luring her into his house in Mathare, Nairobi.

Ouma called the minor into his house, collected and hid her slippers immediately she slipped in before he undressed and raped her.

In his defence, Ouma had alleged he was framed by the victim’s mother owing to a grudge between them. He claimed the minor’s mother owed him some money after taking items from his shop on credit.

Ouma claimed that police officers had demanded a bribe of Sh50,000 to free him but he did not have the cash. Kibosia dismissed his claims as baseless.

She said Ouma should have availed the credit book from the shop or any other document to prove that he was owed and since the shop was his, this document was easily available to  him.

In mitigation, Ouma told Kibosia to be lenient considering he has a young family and his wife had only delivered a few months before his arrest. And being the first born in his family, he was responsible for his young siblings.

He said he was remorseful for his action and claimed he has learnt a lot while in remand and was going to be a useful member of public.