'He took turns with each of us': Sisters break down, reveal church-going father has been abusing them for over a decade

The sound of a movie plays loudly in the background as a father calls his daughter to join him. What should be an innocent family moment masks a horrific reality behind closed doors. For years, this seemingly ordinary scene was the prelude to systematic abuse that four sisters endured at the hands of the one man meant to protect them. It began with movie nights. It ended with a late-night confession that would finally break the silence.

When 17-year-old Winnie* was sent home from school for "social behaviour misconduct" – allegedly lesbianism – it seemed like typical teenage rebellion. She served her suspension and returned to school, swearing to change her behaviour and cut ties with the alleged girlfriend.

But on April 5, 2025, during school holidays, Winnie's 14-year-old sister Pauline* discovered she was still chatting with this girlfriend and reported her to their parents. Their father confronted Winnie in fury, threatening punishment. In that moment, pushed to breaking point, Winnie decided to reveal the truth she had kept hidden for years.

What followed was a revelation so shocking it defied comprehension – since the age of eight, Winnie's father had been sexually abusing her. She had endured two abortions, both pregnancies the result of her father's abuse. More horrifyingly, he had been systematically abusing her three sisters as well, aged 20, 14, and 10.

Their mother, devastated by the revelation, placed a distress call at 2am on April 6 to Affecto Foundation, which sponsors 14-year-old Pauline's education at a national school. The foundation team acted immediately, rescuing the children and taking them to hospital for examination.

Medical records reviewed by Nation confirmed the truth of the allegations. According to hospital documentation, examination revealed evidence of penetration in 14-year-old Pauline's pelvic area – she had been raped by her father barely 24 hours before the story came to light. The family recorded a statement at Waitaluk Police Station in Kitale under OB number 0B08/07/04/2025.

In conversations with the four girls, Winnie revealed that on the very day she exposed the truth, her father had approached her for sex. When she claimed to be menstruating, he simply asked if he could sleep with Pauline instead – which he proceeded to do.

The girls are currently undergoing counselling facilitated by Affecto Foundation as they prepare to return to school. When we met them during one of these sessions, this is what they shared:

Joyline's account

Joyline* is the firstborn of seven siblings and currently a third-year Information Technology student at a local university.

“It all began when I was in Grade Eight, when I walked in on my dad beating my mother. Some weeks later, he started calling me to lie with him as we watched movies. This became an everyday norm – we would lie down and watch movies while mom was away at work running her salon. During this time, he wasn't touchy, so I didn't read much into it. I simply enjoyed watching the movies with him.

“When I entered Form One at a boarding school, I came home for my first term holiday. He called me for movies as usual, but this time was different. He began touching me inappropriately, slipping his hands under my dress. When I protested, he told me to shut up and continue watching the movie or he would beat me. I cried but felt helpless as he forced himself on me. This was the beginning of a traumatic experience that would haunt me and my siblings.

“This continued throughout my four years in high school, every time I came home for holidays or breaks. It happened so often that I would engage in any household chores whenever I saw him around, pretending to be busy to avoid him. This didn't stop him. Instead, he complained to mum, telling her to stop giving me so many chores and instead allocate them to my younger siblings. That way, he would have more time to molest me.

“After completing high school, I came home to find only my dad and my two sisters, Winnie and Pauline. My mother and other siblings had moved to Kitale. When my sisters returned to their boarding schools, my dad would molest me daily. When I protested and threatened to tell mum, he would beat me and say my mother was nothing without him. He threatened that if I dared report him, he would throw us all into the streets.

Read: Manhunt begins for man who raped, murdered daughter in Kajiado

“He would hit me on the head, chest, and thighs, saying I would draw attention from the neighbours if I made noise. Around this time, he brought our cousin Jane*, who was about 18, to live with us. He arranged for both of us to attend computer classes. After some time, I noticed he would also call Jane to his room, and I knew he was assaulting her too. He once actually told me I should be more like Jane and cooperate rather than being ‘hard-headed’ as I always was.

“A month later, I missed my period. When I told him, he bought a pregnancy test, which came back positive. He brought me abortion pills, painkillers, and sanitary pads – he was always the one buying us pads anyway. He ensured I swallowed the pills and would regularly check the consistency of my blood flow to confirm the abortion was successful. I was 17 at the time.

“A week later, dad told me Jane was pregnant as well and that he had given her the same pills he'd given me. He instructed me to take care of her since I had been through it before. Looking back, I suspect he had helped someone procure an abortion even before me because he knew exactly what we needed.

“After these two abortions, I thought the abuse would stop, especially since my cousin almost bled to death. I was wrong. When schools closed and my sisters came home for holidays, my dad informed me that Winnie was two or three months pregnant by him, as she hadn't gotten her period the entire time she was in school. This was shocking because until then, I didn't know he was abusing Winnie too. She was 15 at the time. My dad got abortion pills, painkillers, and pads, forced Winnie to take them, and instructed me to care for her.

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“It was around this time I learned he was also abusing Pauline, who was only 12. He would lock himself in with her, and I could hear her crying. Initially, I would knock on the door, but he would rebuke me and threaten to come for me instead. I often thought about reporting him but feared the consequences since he had become our sole provider after convincing my mother to close her salon and move to Kitale. He continued abusing all three of us on alternating days, even Winnie immediately after she stopped bleeding from the abortion.

“He bought my cousin and me our first phones but tracked them to ensure we didn't share our ordeal with anyone. He linked our phones to his so that if I wasn't home or near him, he could remotely switch off my phone. When my sisters returned to school, he continued molesting me and my cousin. Whenever he saw me with friends my age, he would tell me to bring them to him, claiming they were attractive. I began isolating myself to avoid drawing my friends into this nightmare. A childhood friend once told me my dad had tried hitting on her when we were in Form Two, but I brushed it off because I couldn't bear the embarrassment.

“My dad isolated us, ensuring we didn't visit relatives unless he accompanied us. In 2023, I enrolled in university, which offered me an escape from the misery at home. I avoided going home whenever possible, only returning when absolutely necessary. That same year, he was transferred to Eldoret where he currently works.

“The abuse of my siblings and me continued. Whenever we were on holiday, he would ask one of us to accompany him to Eldoret, where he would rape us. He would force himself on whoever was unfortunate enough to accompany him up to three times in one night. Eventually, Winnie became pregnant by him again, and he forced her to undergo a second abortion.

“Last December 2024, I went home for the holidays. One day, I heard him call my youngest sister, 10-year-old Purity, to the bedroom. He locked himself inside with her. I knocked, but there was no response. Peeking through a crack in the door, I caught him red-handed on top of Purity. I knocked again, but he ignored me. I texted him, asking if myself, Pauline, Winnie, and Jane weren't enough that he needed to abuse Purity, a child. He responded that I was in no position to tell him what to do with his own children, so I let it slide.

Read: Harrowing tale of child sexual abuse behind closed church doors

“When I returned to school, I texted him asking why he was doing this to us. He threatened to stop paying my school fees and said he would commit suicide, leaving us with no one to care for us. He said we would end up as prostitutes and die.

“Fast forward to April 6, 2025 around 1:30am, my mum called me crying, asking why I had never told her what our dad was doing to us. She said Winnie had revealed everything, and at that moment, our dad had locked himself with my other two sisters in their room, breaking the lock so mother couldn't get in. It turned out that while locked in with them, he had raped Pauline with our mother in the adjacent room.

“At dawn, Pauline told our mother that our father had raped her and had left to get contraceptives before heading to work in Eldoret. They waited for him to bring the pills, and after he left for work, my mother took my sisters to the hospital for examination and reported the case to Waitaluk Police Station,” she concludes.

Winnie's account

She is 17-year-old Form Four student at one of the leading schools in Western Kenya.

“It all started when I was in Class Seven. My sister Joyline had earlier warned me to be cautious around dad, though she didn't explain why. Months later during holidays, he called me to lie down and watch a movie with him. When I lay beside him, he started touching me. I told him to stop, but he threatened to kill me if I raised my voice. My mother was in another room that doubled as her salon. My dad turned up the radio volume and defiled me. I submitted out of fear for my life.

“This became routine. While in Form Two, I became pregnant, and he helped me terminate it. Again in 2024, when I was in Form Three, I fell pregnant again, and he once more brought pills to induce an abortion. Even after that, he continued abusing me whenever I was home for holidays. I had endured enough, and when he threatened to punish me this April holiday, I finally revealed everything to our mother,” she says.

Pauline's account

She is a 14-year-old Form Two student at a national school in Western Kenya.

“It all started when I was in Class Five, second term. The first time, he told me to lie down with him to watch a movie. He began touching me, making me uncomfortable, and I told him to stop. He told me to relax, saying, ‘juu hata hao wengine mimi huwafanyia ivo’ (because I do the same to the others). My mother was running her salon at the front of our home while we lived in the back. When I started crying, he turned up the movie's volume, locked all the doors, and forced himself on me.

“This became the norm. I was in a boarding school and anytime we were home for holiday breaks, he would continue the routine. I remember one time he was having sex with me and when I resisted another round, he shouted ‘usinipandishe pressure’ (don't raise my pressure). We had known him to say that whenever he had pressure, he would beat up our mother. So when he brought it up, I just let him be because I didn't want him to become violent.

“At some point, my mother and our younger siblings travelled to Kitale and it was just my sisters and our cousins. This was like hell on earth, I was in Class Eight then and he would take turns with each one of us. It was no longer a secret, he would pick whoever he wanted to sleep with each night from amongst us. None of us wished for night time because he would have a go with the victim even three times with no breaks.

“He also had what I came to learn was an AI tracker called lilly tracker and he would track our menstruation period. This was also made possible by the fact that he is the one who always bought all of us pads whenever we were on our menses. Anytime he slept with us, he would bring us contraceptives to swallow and he would stand there and ensure that you have swallowed. That was the norm until April 6, when he last had sex with me and we reported the case which is now under investigation,” she shares.

Road to justice

According to Ndungu Nyoro, the founder of Affecto Foundation, an organisation that saved the siblings, this incident is devastating and he is committed to seeing that the suspect is brought to book.

“Ever since that chilling call came through on the dawn of April 6, I have made it my business to ensure these girls are safe. Initially, only Pauline was under our care because she is a beneficiary of our programme that caters for the education of bright but needy students, but now I am taking all the siblings up.”

He has since organised counselling sessions for all the victims. “They had their third session last week and it is encouraging to see them now freely speak about their ordeal. It is part of the healing process. At the moment, I am focused on ensuring that they all resume school and that all their basic needs are met,” he shares.

The Cabinet Secretary for Gender, Culture, the Arts and Heritage, Hanna Wendot Cheptumo, and PS Anne Wang'ombe on Monday met the victims and evacuated them to a safe house.

“We have partnered with Ndungu Nyoro of Affecto Foundation and we will ensure that these girls go back to school and that their psychological and basic needs are met,” said the CS. “I will not rest until this man is brought to book and rots in jail. I want him to be an example to other perpetrators out there. We cannot continue operating in this level of lawlessness. I have ordered investigations to commence immediately and we have deployed teams to look into this matter.”

Speaking to the girls, she promised them that she would ensure a safe space for any other minors going through the same situation to speak.

“If we empower our girls and boys to speak up, we put an end to this. It is unfortunate that you had to endure this heinous act for years and were not able to speak about it. I am making a promise to you that my Ministry will get to the bottom of this, and we will save more girls from enduring what you have endured.”

The CS also commended the girls for their bravery in speaking out and assured them of their safety.

A counselling psychologist who is privy to this case says there is need to empower society to curb such cases. “We need, for example, to teach the parents how to connect with their children. This way, you can tell when something is off with any of the children. In this case, maybe the mother would have picked the signs right when it happened to the first daughter.”

The mother's account

Josephine* now regrets the day she met and fell in love with her husband 21 years ago in a church.

"I have never, even in my wildest dreams thought that my husband, with whom I have seven children (five girls – youngest three years old and two boys) was this kind of a beast. He always provided for us despite him being violent towards me physically, I never thought he was capable of defiling our children.

“On physical violence, I once raised it with his mother but she told me that I should appreciate the fact that I have a husband who bought land and built a home for us. My husband does not take alcohol or any other drug for that matter. When I met him he was a dedicated church-goer who used to play the keyboard and had inspirations of becoming a pastor.

“When my daughters opened up to me on the night of April 5/6, I could not comprehend what they were saying. But in retrospect, it made sense because at one point, my son Davison who is Purity's twin, came to me and complained that their dad doesn't love him as he is always watching movies in the bedroom with Purity.

“I just dismissed him and I regret it now because he used that 'movie time' to defile Purity as well. I am scared because my youngest daughter is only three years old and I would not want her to suffer the fate of her older siblings. Since I closed down my salon, my husband has been the sole breadwinner and to some extent, I think that's the reason why I never suspected anything.”

*Names of the victims have been changed to protect their identities.

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