November 17, 2024

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Meet Mukurinu Pastor Jailed for 15 Years over ‘Defilement’

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A pastor of the Akurinu Church (Turbaned faithful) is serving a 15-year jail term in prison.

Pastor Stephen Mburu ended up in the prison over a criminal case which is odd for members of Akurinu church who are known to keep off troubles.

Mburu was jailed in 2016 over defilement but he claims it was a trumped up charge by his accuser’s family who have deep-rooted conflicts with his kindred.

Mburu hails from Sabasaba village in Murang’a County. In prison he is ridiculed as being fake faithful and as using turban to make a living.

He was accused of eloping with an underage girl who was member of church he preached. Even his accusers were faithful of the said church.

On the day he was arrested he had left work at Ruiru and visited his family. He was summoned to Sabasaba police station, shown photos of the girl and asked if he knew her whereabouts.

“I told OCS I knew the girl and her parents as members of my church and that she had moved to Gatundu where she was working as a house-help” Mburu narrates.

He was ordered to take them to Gatundu where the girl and her employer were arrested and alongside Mburu taken back to Sabasaba police station.

“We were locked in then OCS told me she had run away from home and that I was the one who took her there” he says.

He was arraigned in court charged with defilement. He claims the ruling that he waited for long time was unfair despite what he terms weak evidence.

“The case took five and a half years. There was no adequate evidence. Her mother did not submit original birth certificates to ascertain her daughter’s age. How I got jailed baffles me” he alleges.

Mburu says the girl got maid job through her mother and that time she was not a minor but the narrative was allegedly changed by her family to fix him.

“Her family and mine have issues for years. Some years back they tried to have my father jailed on false accusations but it was not successful. i suspect this is the reason they falsely implicated me in this” he claims.

He says the ruling talked about him being in relationship with a minor while police report talks about defilement.

He laments; “It is sad that falsified defilement charges are used by our people in Central to fix those people they have issues with”.

He is in his fifth year and has remained member of Akurinu church. He associates himself with the saved fellow prisoners but tries to convert the unsaved ones.

His relatives, wife and children visits him but he says he forgave those who allegedly fixed him with a humiliating case.

“It is humiliating but when I reflect I see there was a reason for it. Perhaps God wants to use me to reach out to some people in prison and convert them” Mburu says.

Adding; “I pray god that my accusers get peace, and change their hearts not to do such a thing again. To my faithfuls I still preach about God and I will come back and continue preaching”.