Gregory Dow and his wife Mary Rose. Mr Dow served time for sex-related crimes in the US before travelling to Kenya where he started a children’s home in Bomet County.
The Federal Bureau of Investigations has launched a probe into reports that an American couple running a charity in Kenya abused children. The investigations are to establish if Gregory Dow and his wife Mary Rose — residents of Lancaster — molested those in their care at a children’s home in Boito, Bomet County.
A warrant of arrest has been issued against the two who left Kenya in 2017. According to court records and personal accounts, Mr Dow engaged in sex with girls at the home. One worker said he saw him and a girl in the shower. According to a source familiar with the matter, the FBI has already sent its agents to Boito, Dallas and Lancaster.
A Kenyan-American based in Lancaster told the Nation that investigations were at an advanced stage. “I know the FBI and local authorities started investigations soon after this issue was published in the Lancaster newspaper and the Sunday Nation. I have been interviewed several times,” the source, who requested anonymity, told the Nation. In a phone interview with the Nation from Texas, Mr Dow’s former wife Janice Jenkins could not say if FBI detectives had visited her.
BIRTH CONTROL
However, she added that Mr Dow abused their daughter for more than two decades when they lived in Ohio. “The law is finally catching up with them. We expect indictments soon,” Ms Jenkins said. Mary Rose — arrested as she attempted to flee Kenya — was found by a Sotik court guilty of cruelty to children. She paid the Sh50,000 fine imposed on her and left the country.
The court was told that she had the girls under her care implanted with birth-control devices. Ms Maggie Ruto, a Kenyan in Lancaster who blew the whistle on the Dows, could not hide her disappointment with the ruling.
“It was absurd that she received VIP treatment during the court proceedings. Her mitigation, apparently, was that she was unwell. Who was thinking about the victims of sexual abuse?” Mr Ruto said. The Dows maintain their innocence. Pastor Donald Lamb of Life-Gate Church in Elizabethtown claims the Dows’ Kenyan neighbours turned against them.
Source: Daily Nation Kenya