Two of the three key suspects in the gory attack on baby Brighton Junior Sagini Friday denied causing bodily harm to the minor during a hearing of the case.
Alex Ochogo and his mother, Pacifica Nyakerario, cited a witch-hunt in their arrest and subsequent arraignment for the assault on Sagini, then aged three years.
They both denied all counts during cross-examination when they appeared before Kisii Law Courts Senior Resident Magistrate Christine Ogweno.
The suspects have been put on defense in the horrible case.
Ochogo told his lawyer Wilstone Magara that on the material day when Sagini’s eyes were gouged out, he was at a construction site and his foreman informed them about the news he heard over the radio on the incident.
On further interrogation, he said on the material day he was drunk and by 6 pm he went to sleep.
At the same time, he told the court he escorted his mother who was traveling to Nairobi.
Ochogo, the first to be put on his defense, rebuffed the account of events given in court by his younger sister, Moraa Ochogo, that she saw him with a knife and sack at dusk before Sagini was attacked and his eyes gouged out.
Instead, he told the court he was enjoying drinks with friends in Kegogi, a short distance from home, where he worked at a construction site.
Sagini was found on December 13, 2022, in a maize farm with empty eye sockets after an unknown assailant waylaid him as he returned from the river and gouged out his eyes.
Ochogo said he learned of the assault over the radio and later at Rioma Police Station where his local chief took him.
On the night of Sagini’s assault, Ochogo said he had already spent several days away at the construction site and was putting up there with a few other workers.
He cited the run-ins with his chief as the reason he was fixed for the felony.
Ochogo denied being with a knife and sack as witnessed by his young sister, Moraa.
He said a beating he had given Moraa may have prompted her to sell him out to authorities for an offense he did not commit.
“It was all vindictive, it is because I had beaten her up for some mistake'” Ochogo told the Magistrate.
Ochogo was arrested alongside his mother, Pacifica Nyakerario, and his grandmother Rael Nyakerario.
He also told the court, he was absent when the area chief called a baraza contrary to the chief’s statement when he was being cross-examined.
The accused further said he didn’t have a knife and a sack contrary to a statement from his wife Teresa Nyaboke.
Pacifica, in her defense, said on the material day, she had traveled to visit her daughter in Nairobi and she was arrested only to be told of baby Sagini’s tragedy.
“ I didn’t see whether the baby’s eyes were gouged out when he appeared in court virtually,” she said.
She said her ailing daughter had sent for an herbal concoction and a hen which she was to deliver for her medication.
“She had called me and asked that I take her an already slaughtered hen and ferry it as a parcel alongside the concoction. I, however, objected to carrying a dead hen, “she said.
Pacifica said she was unaware of the assault on Sagin until her arrest by detectives in Nairobi.
She defended her son for escorting her to Kisii town bus park on the material night Sagini was attacked saying she was new in the area and needed assistance.
The mother of ten said her visit to Nairobi was further necessitated by fears of some planned plot by her husband’s brothers to kill her on suspicion that she had killed her husband.
“They had even bought petrol and wanted to burn me as we slept,” she told the court.
Pacifica denied interacting with Sagini days before the incident.
She also denied interacting with her mother-in-law for as many as ten years.
She said the chief’s account that she was involved in gouging Sagini’s eyes was framed to fix her after pestering him to finish paying for a goat he had bought from her.
Ogweno ordered that more witnesses be allowed to testify when further hearing comes up.
The case continues on May 5, 2023.
