For Better or Worse: Kenyan Woman Vows to Stick with Her 'Mzungu' Husband Accused of Defiling Minors in Nairobi
A Kenyan woman has defended her 65-year-old Dutch husband who is accused of sexually assaulting underage girls in Nairobi.
Speaking to the Daily Nation, Rachel Hans says that she believes her husband, Hans Vriens Egon Dieter, who was arrested in November 2018 for allegedly defiling three minors, is innocent.
The foreigner was arrested in Nairobi's Kasarani estate by detectives from the Child Protection Unit and Transnational Organized Crime Unit.
He is said to have defiled the three girls aged 8, 9 and 10 in 2016 before going into hiding.
Rachel says she was shocked to learn that Hans had previously been convicted with the same offenses in the Netherlands.
She further says that the arrest and charging of her husband have hugely disrupted their humble lives and their charity work of looking after street children.
Rachel reveals that she met the 65-year-old man in 2010 in Nairobi and dated him for two years before they got married.
“I knew Hans must have had a family back in his motherland and he had told me as much but I didn’t imagine he could be linked to such offenses as I’ve never seen him behave suspiciously,” she says.
"I was shocked by the charges and I’ve been struggling to know the truth because he still pleads his innocence,” Rachel explains from her home in Kitui.
Rachel, 33, says she doesn't regret marrying the Dutchman and has vowed to stick with him.
“Marriage is for better or worse. Here is a foreigner whom I’ve stayed with for 10 years now facing grave charges. The entire country including my home village may be against him but I’ve no choice other than to stick with him,” she notes.
She describes her husband as a humble man who is incapable of doing the things he's accused of, due to old age.
“I don’t know what happened to him before he came to Kenya because I’ve never visited the Netherlands since we got married but at his age, he’s less active sexually and incapable of engaging in such escapades."