Stephen's Story: From rescued to rescuer
Ten years ago, as a wave of bank robberies swept Kenya, bank employees like Stephen anxiously wondered if their branches would be struck by the crime. The tense speculation did not last long: Stephen’s branch was soon hit by thieves who robbed the bank and shot a police officer while making their escape. Shaken by the incident, Stephen and his colleagues wondered if the perpetrators would ever be found.
Five days after the robbery, a police officer investigating the crime arrived at the bank and asked Stephen to accompany him to the station. Stephen assumed that, as a trusted employee, he would be asked to provide important information that could help solve the case. However, once in custody, Stephen quickly realised that something was wrong. Rather than seek his help in the investigation process, the officer intended to force Stephen to confess to a crime he had not committed.
The police had determined that the theft had been an “inside job”, and, simply because he was an employee, Stephen was falsely accused of robbing the bank and shooting a police officer – a crime that would carry a death sentence if he were found guilty. There were neither witnesses nor evidence linking him to the case, but the police were under pressure to show that an arrest had been made, so Stephen was ordered to confess. Stephen had a wife and an eight-year-old son. His first thoughts in the bewildering aftermath of the accusation were of them, as he wondered what they would do if he were jailed for a crime he hadn’t committed, or, worse, condemned to death.
As Project Coordinator and Community Relations Director for IJM Kenya, Stephen works to empower communities to “make the bold step of demanding justice”.
“Returning back to my family after the long period was one great moment of overwhelming joy.” Today, Stephen is able to enjoy time with his son.
Stephen’s situation deteriorated rapidly. When he refused to confess to the crime, the officers tied his hands to his knees, hung him upside down and tortured him with clubs, whips and bats. Stephen was threatened, taunted and beaten as the corrupt officers attempted to extract a confession from him.
Stephen was held at the station that night. In pain and in shock, he couldn’t sleep. “The second day, I started losing hope. … I really believed that they were going to kill me,” Stephen remembers. The men continued to torture Stephen for five days, taking him to different police stations each night so that his wife couldn’t find him. He suffered psychological as well as physical abuse: one night, his assailants took him to a nearby forest and prepared him as if for an execution. Rather than kill him however, the men continued with the same methodical torture.
His family couldn’t find him, and the police – the very individuals who were charged with protecting him – would not believe him when he told the truth. There was no-one for Stephen to turn to.
Finally, the officers accepted that he had not committed the crime – but threw him in prison to cover up their abuse.
In prison, days, then months, passed. Stephen waited, always maintaining his innocence. Corruption had frozen the justice process. Kenya’s laws designed to protect wrongfully accused victims were ignored. Months turned into years and still Stephen was not given a chance to prove his innocence.
At home, his son could not understand what was happening, or why his father had not come home. Stephen’s arrest was publicised in the local papers, and his wife was ostracised by friends, neighbours and acquaintances. Corrupt individuals capitalised on the family’s vulnerability, extracting funds from his wife for legal services they never intended to provide.
But one of the family’s neighbours heard about IJM’s work on behalf of illegally detained prisoners and reported Stephen’s imprisonment to IJM Kenya. The Kenyan team took on the case, and, finally, Stephen had a voice.
IJM’s legal team was able to represent Stephen in court, demonstrating his innocence and proving that there was absolutely no evidence linking him to the crime. On December 14, 2001, after three and a half years in prison, Stephen was acquitted and released from illegal detention. He was free. “Returning back to my family after the long period was one great moment of overwhelming joy,” Stephen shares.
But Stephen’s story did not end when he left prison.
While IJM staff began to pursue actions against the perpetrators of Stephen’s abuse, Stephen himself wanted to stand for others enduring injustice. He returned to college to complete degrees in Community Development and Biblical & Religious studies, planning to use his training to seek justice on behalf of others who were suffering.
After completing an internship with IJM Kenya and graduating from university, Stephen returned to IJM – this time as a staff member, working to mobilize communities around Kenya to respond to injustice.
Now Stephen works every day to bring the rescue he has known to others. He recently assisted IJM Kenya’s legal and investigative staff in securing the release of nine young boys being illegally detained for interrogation by police. For Stephen, this transition from rescued to rescuer is natural, as he explains that “I have a duty to serve as I was served”.
Still today, many more men, women and children are awaiting such a rescue, but Stephen provides one example of a man using his freedom to change the lives of suffering individuals who need an advocate just as he once did.
