U.S. ex-missionary jailed 40 years for abusing Kenyan orphans

A former United States (U.S.) missionary has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for sexually abusing children at an orphanage in Kenya.

Matthew Lane Durham, 21, had committed “heinous crimes on the most vulnerable victims”, the United States (U.S.) court said.

Durham targeted orphans while working as a volunteer at the Upendo Children’s Home in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, between April and June 2014.

He is the latest charity worker in Kenya to be convicted of sex crimes.

The BBC in Nairobi said that Upendo Children’s Home, where Durham was accused of abusing more than 10 children – some as young as four years, has welcomed the sentence by an Oklahoma court.

It has put up a video on YouTube with the headline: “Upendo Children Celebrate Justice!!”, showing the orphanage’s founder telling her colleagues in Nairobi about the sentencing, which she had attended.