This archive report was first published on 17 August 2019.
On August 17, 2019, the High Court in Narok made a significant ruling in a rape case, reducing a life sentence to 13 years for the convicted man.
John Taiko Mereu was initially sentenced to life imprisonment for raping a pregnant woman and cutting her on the right leg using a panga in July 2014.
According to evidence presented in court, Mereu and another accomplice forced open the house of the complainant, who was asleep with her husband at the time.
When the police arrived, they found Mereu lying on top of the woman, and he was arrested on the spot.
During the trial, Mereu claimed that he had taken too much alcohol and slept on the road at Ntulele, where the police arrested him and put him in cells.
However, the High Court judge, Justus Bwonwonga, withheld the conviction, stating that the evidence provided was sufficient to prove Mereu guilty.
Despite upholding the conviction, Bwonwonga quashed the sentence imposed by the trial court and imposed a new sentence of 13 years imprisonment, taking into account the time Mereu had spent in custody since July 14, 2014.
