Man Confesses to Killing Catholic Priest Who Sodomized Him, Says Priest Called Him 'Babe', 'Sweetheart'

A suspect on Thursday pleaded guilty to killing Catholic priest Michael Kyengo Maingi for allegedly sodomizing him.

Michael Muthinji in his mitigation confessed he killed the priest after he turned him into a “wife.”

He told Embu High Court judge Lucy Njuguna that the clergyman molested him several times before he got fed up and stabbed him to death in October 2019. 

Muthinji, who pleaded not guilty when he was first charged in 2019, will be sentenced on November 8th after the probation report is tabled in court for evaluation.

The court heard that the suspect killed Father Kyengo and buried his body in a shallow grave in Embu before fleeing to Kilifi where he was arrested.

Muthinji was charged with murder alongside his two other co-accused Kavivya Mwangangi and Solomon Mutava. 

Father Kyengo, who was attached to Thatha Parish in Machakos County, went missing on October 8th, 2019 before his body was discovered in a shallow grave at the banks of River Mashamba in Embu.

Muthinji confessed that the 43-year-old priest, who was initially his mentor and was paying his school fees, started making sexual advances towards him in 2017 and kept calling him ‘babe’, ‘sweetheart’ among other names before he sodomized him. 

He told the court that one day, the priest spiked his drink and drugged him, only to wake up and find that he had been sodomized.

When he demanded to know why he molested him, the priest allegedly said that he had all the rights since the accused person had nothing to repay for all the favors he had accorded him.

“Kama nime kuumiza pole sana chukua pesa nimeweka juu ya meza ukanunue dawa chemist wacha nikimbie kazi Muthinji,” Muthinji quoted the priest.

The accused said he became angry and despised himself, even turning suicidal as he could not understand why his mentor had turned into a beast.

Muthinji told the court that this continued for some time but things turned ugly when the deceased told him he had infected him with a sexually transmitted disease.

This made him furious, forcing him to knock him unconscious before stabbing him and slitting his throat then stashed his body in a gunny bag.

Muthinji said he was remorseful and urged the court to pardon him, arguing that he is a young man who is ready to reform and do something meaningful with his life.