I Have Been in Prison for 10 Years for a Crime I Did Not Commit

By Soko Directory Team / Published January 28, 2019 | 1:26 pm

Lydia Achieng’ is one month to freedom after spending ten years in jail for what she terms as injustice after she was wrongfully accused.

It has been a decade since she ‘smelt’ freedom and her story paints a chaotic justice system begging the question of how many could be wallowing in prisons because of a few crafty individuals.

A teary Lydia narrates to a local news outlet how her youthfulness has wasted in prison over the 10 years despite not having been found guilty and her accuser coming forward to withdraw the case.

Lydia tells of how it all started after she visited her upcountry home and decided to assist an orphaned girl in pursuing her education from class six in Kiserian, Kajiado County but a few years later when the girl was in class eight things began to change.

The girl Lydia had taken up was accused of being in an intimate relationship with the accuser’s (identified as Sophia) son who is identified in the clip as Rajab triggering Sophia’s fury which led her to confront Sophia to warn the girl severally.

Lydia did not pay much attention to Sophia’s complaints about the relationship between the two minors as to her it was innocent.

In the exclusive interview, Lydia narrates how Sophia wrongly accused her of defiling her teenage son despite knowing that it was a lie.

In what is seen as the accuser threatening Lydia to ensure the relationship between the two minors would not see the light of day, once Lydia had spent a few nights in jail, Sophia came back seeking to withdraw the case and confessed that she had indeed accused Lydia falsely.

“Huyu mama akasimama akasema yeye amekuja kuwithdraw kesi alikuwa amenisingizia. Your honor akatoa macho nne akasema, kesi kama hii, defilement, murder haiwezi kuwa withdrawn bila barua kutoka kwa attoney general.”(My accuser stood and requested to withdraw the case confessing that she had accused me falsely, your honor removed his spectacles and said, cases such as murder and defilement cannot be withdrawn without a letter from the attorney general) Lydia narrates adding that her accuser together with Lydia’s mother went to the attorney general severally but never found him.

“Huyo mama na mamangu wakaenda kwa attoney general wakamkosa wakarudi siku ingine bado wakamkosa hadi siku ya kurudi koti,” she explains.

The magistrate then convicted Lydia imprisoning her for 10 years after she failed to get a letter from the Attorney General’s office. It was too much a blow to Lydia Achieng, as she explains in the interview, that she became too confused to even file an appeal and when she did she made a mistake in the filing as she had no lawyer and the appeal was thrown out.

Achieng who only has a month to complete the decade-long jail term points out that she has learned to forgive Sophia but the pain of losing her youth is going to hunt her all her life. The interview pauses as Lydia breaks down into sobs helpless lamenting that Sophia has wasted her life. What has the country’s judiciary done to ensure justice?

“Watu wachunguze kwanza kesi juu mtu akikuwestia time mahali kama hapa hapa sio mahali pazuri. Mtu akikuleta kwa miaka kumi ama tano ama life sio mahali pazuri juu huyu mama ameniharibia wakati wangu yeye maisha yake inaendela huko nje. Hajawahi kuja kuniona ama kuona wazazi wangu,” (People should first investigate a case before wasting other people’s lives, this is not a good place to bring an innocent person to whether for 5, 10 years or even life imprisonment. This woman has wasted my time as her life continues out there, not once has she visited me or gone to my parents)Achieng says amid sobs.

Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji has since taken up the case in the clip and has directed immediate investigations over the case that has gone viral with Kenyans out rightly shocked.

The DPP said that though Achieng’s case was during the era of police prosecutors, his office would follow it up.

Attached media clip has been brought to the attention of the DPP. Despite the fact that convict was charged during the era of Police Prosecutors and before the 2010 Constitution, the DPP has directed that an immediate follow be done. Cc @inoorotvNews
https://t.co/A1UZt5l1iS

— ODPP_KE (@ODPP_KE) January 27, 2019

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