Another Kenyan jailed in US for raping 85-year-old patient
Gavel and a pair of handcuffs. Courtesy photo
Another Kenyan immigrant residing in the US state of Kansas has been sentenced to over 17 years in prison for sexually assaulting an 85-year-old woman in a nursing home.
Samuel Muniu Wambugu,66, was charged, in Johnson County district court, with felony rape in January 2022.
He was also charged in August 2024 with felony mistreatment of a care home resident.
Wambugu pleaded guilty to both charges. Sentences for each charge will run consecutively for a total of 208 months.
The sexual assault was first reported on January 21, 2022, at The Heritage of Overland Park, which specializes in treating senior citizens with Alzheimer’s and dementia. Wambugu was arrested after a coworker had found both him and the resident partially undressed in her room the previous night, according to court documents.
The 85-year-old resident was examined at an area hospital for rape, where she recalled that she was almost asleep when a man, later identified as Wambugu, assaulted her, court documents read.
The accused has been languishing in custody at Johnson County jail after he failed to raise $500,000–an equivalent of slightly over a Sh65 million bond.
The court also ordered that the sentence for each charge in Wambugu’s jail sentence run concurrently for a total of 208 months.
Wambugu was working at The Heritage of Overland Park, a nursing home for the elderly and people suffering from Alzheimer’s and dementia.
In January this year, authorities in Kansas received a complaint that Wambugu and the patient were caught naked in the patient’s bedroom.
His co-worker, who caught him, made the report to the police and he was immediately arrested from the nursing home, which specialises in treating and caring for senior citizens suffering from Alzheimer’s and dementia, court papers revealed.
The court was further told that the victim was taken to a nearby hospital where, upon medical examination, it was discovered that she had been raped.
When asked to explain what had happened, the granny explained that she was just about to sleep when a man, who was later found to be Wambugu, sexually assaulted her, according to court filings.
After his arrest, Wambugu was unable to raise the bail, forcing the court to order that he be held in custody for the last eight months until he pleaded guilty to the charges a few days ago.
Wambugu’s case has left many Kenyans in the diaspora shocked.
About a year ago, another Kenyan was sentenced to life imprisonment for raping an old woman in Maryland.
Josto Nyakeyo, a former high school teacher in Kenya, was arrested and convicted of sexually assaulting an elderly woman at a nursing home.
Johnson County, which is home to wealthy neighbourhoods, such as Overland Park and Lenexa, is one of the counties which has offered employment opportunities in the healthcare sector for a huge population of Kenyans living in the US.
