A man who defiled his 15-year-old daughter and infectd her with HIV has said he did so because he did not want to die alone leaving behind her to suffer.

The 45-year-old Kenyan man has been handed a life sentence for the crime.

The convict lived with his daughter at Muthara village in Tigania East, Meru County of Kenya, and was said to have dragged her to the farm where he defiled her on several occasions.

The victim fled to a nearby homestead where she was found and taken to Muthara Police Station. Upon her release, the girl declined to accompany her father home. She told the officers that her father had repeatedly defiled her and her teachers who she told about it, have refused to do anything about it.

The investigating officer took the man’s clinic card and discovered that he had enrolled to collect anti-retroviral drugs. Both the man and his daughter tested HIV positive.

The convict who casually admitted to defiling his daughter to ‘ease her sexual urge’, added that he committed the offence since he did not want to die alone and leave the girl to suffer.

In her testimony, the girl narrated how her father would wake her up at night and drag her to the farm where he defiled her. Principal Prosecution Counsel Celestine Matere said the offence was serious as it had affected the girl’s future.

While the father later made a u-turn and claimed that the minor and her mother had framed him up since he had married a second wife, Principal Magistrate of Tigania court Paul Wechuli said he was convinced that the 45-year old man had committed incest and knowingly infected the minor with HIV

Mr Wechuli held that the man had betrayed his daughter’s trust and so deserved to serve the maximum sentence. He was given 14 days to appeal.