A 10-year-old Kenyan schoolboy pleads guilty to raping a three-year-old girl

Independent Online:

A 10-year-old Kenyan schoolboy on Tuesday pleaded guilty to raping a three-year-old girl last month in a case that has shocked the country's central Rift Valley province.

The boy, wearing his school uniform, stunned a packed courtroom in this lakeside town by admitting to sexually assaulting the girl who is still in hospital with serious internal injuries she sustained in the attack.

"It's true as read," the child said in halting Swahili when asked by Naivasha magistrate Jennifer Thuita to respond to the charge of having unlawful carnal knowledge of the girl.

His plea was met with gasps and visible displays of shock among spectators who had gathered at the courthouse about 90km north-west of Nairobi to witness the unusual prosecution of a minor on sex charges.

Police said the boy assaulted the girl for unknown reasons after she was briefly left along outside her home when her mother went to the market. The victim suffered vaginal, facial and back injuries in the attack, they said.

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