A man accused of beating up his wife’s pastor has pleaded guilty to assault charges at a Mombasa Court.
Appearing before Mombasa Principal Magistrate Vincent Adet, the suspect, JHK, was charged that on March 13, he assaulted the pastor identified as SGM, causing him actual bodily harm.
“Yes it is true I beat him up,” said the accused.
The 41-year-old man narrated that on the said day, at around 11 am, he went to the church located in Mombasa to ask the pastor why his wife had taken so long to return home.
He claimed that when he approached the pastor for a chat, the clergyman pushed him away.
“I became irritated and slapped him on the neck because he disrespected me while my wife went to his church with children for no apparent reason,” he claimed.
He said that since they were in a slippery area, the pastor fell and started screaming for help.
The accused added that Pastor SGM threatened him after he was rescued by the neighbours.
“He insisted that I will ‘see’, I never knew what he meant,” the suspect said.
The man also alleged that the pastor was having an affair with his wife, whom he claimed had infected him with HIV.
“She is my wife and she infected me with HIV. If I buy food, she takes all of it to the pastor and she does this every day. The pastor also bought her a phone,” he claimed.
On his part, the pastor claimed the suspect and his two friends stormed his church and accused him of taking his wife away.
“When they approached where I was seated, the suspect came directly to me and started slapping me while claiming that I took his wife to stay in my church,” he said in a statement to the police.
The pastor said the suspect had a dispute with his wife and he chased her away from their house.
“Because his wife is one of the church members, she came to seek refuge in the church,” he said.
“In fact, I had sent the woman to the village elder to solve their issues but the suspect came and attacked me before appearing before the village elder to solve their difference,” he added.
The pastor recounted his ordeal saying: “I screamed but before the rescuers arrived, he wrestled me down the slope. I got injured on my right hand between the index finger and the thump. Neighbours came to rescue me but the suspect insisted on teaching me a lesson not to give refuge to people’s wives.”
State Counsel Hillary Isaiaho added: “The suspect followed his wife and found the pastor outside the church and, without asking any questions, he started hitting the pastor with a fist on the face and the head before wrestling him down while complaining that the pastor was having a love affair with his wife.”
Magistrate Vincent Adet ordered a presentence and the victim impact assessment reports before sentencing the accused.
The matter will be mentioned on April 5.
