Army Man Jailed For Wife’s refusal To Sleep With His Boss?

Standard, Kenya

A former Kenya Army lieutenant sentenced to five years in jail may have been wrongly sentenced, his wife has said.

Joel Kitanga Nguyo attached to 3KR unit in Nakuru was sentenced to serve time for insubordination and failure to perform military duties properly.

Nguyo was found guilty by a court martial in Nakuru in case 7/14 after more than five months of trial. He was locked up in Naivasha Medium Prison before being transferred to Kericho GK Prison.

But in a new twist of events, Ann Ndanu, the lieutenant’s wife, now claims that she could have been the reason her husband was jailed. The 26-year-old claims that trouble began after she turned down sexual advances by her husband’s boss who is in the rank of a Major.

Nguyo and Ndanu met in 2012 and had just settled in Lanet Barracks where the Major was a frequent visitor, like any other friend, and Nguyo often saw him off in his usual jovial mood.

But the Major’s visits became more frequent when Nguyo left for a mission to Somalia in July 2014. The Major’s unannounced visits became frequent, “and whenever my husband sent anything he (the Major) would tell me in advance” even when “I had just talked with him (husband) on phone and he hadn’t mentioned anything,” offers Ndanu.

The Major reportedly once parked his saloon car outside Nguyo’s house and announced “he wanted to have a date with me later in the evening in Nakuru and that he had my present as he moved closer and started touching me suggestively around my breasts,” says Ndanu.

But Ndanu was reportedly not playing ball. She was allegedly warned that should she reveal what had happened, her life would never be the same again. She allegedly reported the matter to her husband. Thereafter, Nguyo reportedly called his wife complaining that the Major was mistreating him. Ndanu, fearing for her life, apparently fled the barracks to a residential house.

Charges were later levelled against Nguyo and “his life was now becoming hard because he was on duty while attending court proceedings.” Nguyo was charged with sneaking out of Somalia without permission but “he was on leave, even some of his colleagues knew,” says Ndanu who was summoned to testify but the prosecutor allegedly used military language that she could not understand.

Nguyo was found guilty and taken to Naivasha Medium Prison. “I was forced to quit my job. Some of his colleagues later told me that he was very sick around the same time I was pregnant but I miscarried due to depression,” Ndanu claims, adding that she has exhausted her savings and returned to her parents’ home in Machakos.

Contacted by The Nairobian over the matter, the Major said: “I don’t know if Nguyo is married and I don’t know his wife, but the matter was investigated and concluded. What I know is that they wanted to fix me. I am really shocked.”

From his prison in Kericho, Nguyo told The Nairobian that the Major was once a great friend and they often sorted each other out with soft financial loans. But matters reportedly came to a head when Nguyo raised the issue of his sexual interest in his wife and he was allegedly warned “to stop questioning him on such issues.” Nguyo adds that the Major later reported him to his superiors for speaking rudely to him.