I stole to feed my HIV+ brother

Tuesday March 27, 2012 - Tears and emotions filled the Nyeri courtroom on Monday after an underage boy narrated on how he stole fish from a neigbour’s fish pond to ostensibly provide a special diet for his younger brother who is HIV positive.

Nyeri Senior Resident Magistrate Joan Wabiliyanga cut short the narration amid sobs and she requested the court’s administration to give her time as she wept softly outside courtroom.

The probation and children’s officer had a difficult time explaining to the sobbing magistrate how he brought such an emotional case in the court.

The probation officer blamed the boy’s behavior on their irresponsible and perennially drunk father who is a guard at a nearby jua kali shed.

“He started his delinquent behavior when his mother died since there was no one to monitor them. His father is a perennial drunkard,” the children’s officer said.

When delivering the ruling the magistrate sent the boy to Shimo La Tewa Borstal Institution-correction facility for the underage, while she ruled that his sick brother be taken to a proper children home and be briefed on the boy’s health after every month.

The magistrate also ordered the boy’s father be arrested for children’s neglect as stipulated in our constitution.

The Kenyan DAILY POST