Five men will be arraigned in court.

Detectives in Kilifi County are holding in cell five men connected to the alleged abduction and gang defiling of a 16-year-old Grade 8 student due to what is believed to be a means of settling scores with the girl’s father.

According to the investigations which  has been going on since June 16, 2024, two men aged 42 and 63, and who are believed to have a land tussle with the minor’s dad, were found to have planned the girl’s abduction by 21-year-old Elijah Dadi Robert, thereafter holding her hostage at an abandoned posho mill.

She was abducted while going home from a local school within Mitangoni area.

The men identified as Karisa Kashindo, (42) and his security man Nderi Magure Mwatsuma who doubles as Ubwete, (63) are reported to have stood guard and watched as the third suspect repeatedly defiled the minor, threatening to kill her should she expose the beastly act to anyone.

They are reported to have sneaked the victim back to her home in the cover of darkness, forcing her to pack a few clothes before she was again whisked away on a motorcycle to Shariani area at a makuti house within Makata village, to her trauma and the agony of her desperate parents amid frantic search by the local police.

While at Makata, the victim who has since been rescued and reunited with her family revealed that her abductors brought in several other young men who also defiled her, two of whom were identified and arrested on Saturday, June 29, 2024.

In the investigative interviews on the second batch of suspects identified as Fostine Kalu Tinga, 19 and Kelvin Kiti Sanga revealed that they are both students in Form 2 and Form 3.

In an operation led by the Chonyi Sub-county Criminal Investigations Officer on Saturday, evidential materials were found and documented from the two crime scenes, which not only supported the victim’s allegations but also pointed to the abduction of other two juveniles whose rescue is underway.

All the five suspects in custody assisting with further investigations to net more suspects connected to the incident before being arraigned in court.