A 60-year-old American man accused of sexually assaulting underage Kenyan girls in an orphanage he founded in Bomet County has been arrested.
Gregory Dow fled to the United States from Kenya in 2017 after an arrest warrant was issued against him over allegations of molesting the minors.
William McSwain, an American attorney, said Dow will face four counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign country.
“From or about October 14, 2013, until on or about September 13, 2014, the defendant (Dow) engaged in, and attempted to engage in, illicit sexual conduct with four different minor victims in Kenya,” the lawyer said during a press briefing at the Lancaster County courthouse.
Dow had operated the sanctuary located in Boito, Bomet County since 2008 but the facility was closed by the government in 2017.
Documents filed in a Kenyan court showed Dow engaged in sex with underage girls at the children’s home.
Dow, from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania was previously convicted with sex-crime in the US.
Two girls, who claimed to be victims of Dow, recorded reports with police saying that he (Dow) would occasionally summon them and would get angry whenever they refused his advances.
His wife was arrested while trying to leave Kenya and was found guilty of having girls at the sanctuary implanted with birth-control devices. She left the country after paying a court fine of Sh50,000.
There have been concerted efforts between Kenyan authorities and their US counterparts to trace the suspect.
More than 70 orphaned and poor children were housed in the facility by the year 2015.
In an interview with Lancaster Online earlier this year, Dow maintained he was innocent. “There’s not much I can do. I know the truth. They made the accusations falsely, and they got out of hand.”
He accused a Kenyan man who sold him the parcel of land where their orphanage was built of fixing him in a bid to illegally reclaim the property back. He said the man coached some girls to lie that he sexually assaulted them.
“It’s sad to say we live in a society where people are guilty until proven innocent,” he said in January.
“My life was in danger, and I knew it,” Dow said on the reason why he fled Kenya.
Dow’s former wife Janice Jenkins said he abused their daughter for over two decades when they lived in Ohio.
“The law is finally catching up with them. We expect indictments soon,” Ms. Jenkins told the Daily Nation.
Dow is expected to appear in federal court in Philadelphia on Friday next week.
He should be taken back to…
He should be taken back to Kenya to answer the charges where he committed the crimes.
Justice in a foreign land will not satisfy crimes committed in Kenya
He needs to be tried and jailed in Kenya where he committed the crimes. To come face to face with his victims. The trial should be made public. Otherwise, Kenyan’s do not need to know what is happening to him as long as he is in a foreign land. Let Kenyan authorities know when he and his wife are back in Kenya.
Let him be tried in the US,…
Let him be tried in the US, and the victims be flown there to testify. In Kenya, he will just use the Court process to endlessly delay his case, until everyone forgets about it. Then he will quietly buy his way out of justice.