Mercy Mwende sat her KCSE exams in 2022 and walked away with a C+. The 20-year-old from Sotik in Bomet County had every reason to look forward to the future. Today she is behind bars serving a 20-year sentence for defilement in a case that has left Kenyans deeply divided.
It started on Facebook. Shortly after her exams Mercy connected with a young man who said he was from Elburgon. The two dated online for several weeks before she and a close friend travelled to Elburgon in early 2023 for a back-to-school photoshoot where she met him in person for the first time.
When the photoshoot ended late in the evening the girls discovered they had missed the last matatu back to Sotik.
The boyfriend offered them a place to sleep at his family home promising they would leave early the next morning. They accepted. That night the three of them spent the night together in what medical examinations later confirmed as sexual activity.
The following morning at around 5:30am the boyfriend left for town to help his mother at their family hotel. By 6:30am his grandmother was already outside cleaning the compound. When the girls asked her to unlock the door she instead raised an alarm accusing them of defiling a schoolboy who turned out to be the boyfriend’s younger brother still dressed in his school uniform.
Mercy’s friend allegedly knocked the grandmother down and escaped. Mercy was arrested on the spot. The schoolboy was taken in for examination and tests confirmed sexual contact had occurred. Both girls were charged with gang rape and defilement of a minor.
The families tried to settle the matter out of court paying the grandmother Ksh50,000 for the assault. But the grandmother allegedly kept pushing for more money demanding first Ksh100,000 then Ksh300,000. The families could not raise the amount and negotiations broke down completely.
When the case went to trial Mercy’s friend was acquitted and walked free. Mercy was convicted of defilement and in April 2025 she was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Her family insists she was a victim of circumstances that spun out of control. Thousands of Kenyans on social media are now demanding answers asking whether justice was truly served or whether a young woman’s life was destroyed because her family could not afford to pay.