A jilted woman and three of her accomplices have been sentenced to death for killing her eight-year-old stepdaughter.
Elenah Nyambura stabbed Sheilah Wanjiku to death to win back her estranged husband Peter Kamau.
Nyambura hatched a plan with her brother Geoffrey Njuguna, who looked for the killer, Kenneth Muriithi. Peris Njeri showed Muriithi where the girl lived.
Nyambura paid the killer Sh80,000 through Njeri.
The doctor who examined the girl's body concluded that the cause of death was severe bleeding from 10 stab wounds on the neck.
While passing the sentence yesterday, Justice Fred Ochieng said it does not matter who killed the girl because each of the four played a role "which contributed to the success of the heinous act".
“In a nutshell, Elenah conceived the idea to eliminate baby Sheila. She then enlisted the help of her own brother, Geoffrey whose role was to identify and recruit the killers. Meanwhile, Peris would point out the house to the killers,” Ochieng said.
The judge said given the number of times the baby was stabbed on her neck and the fact that the stab wounds were penetrative, there can be no doubt the person or persons who inflicted the injuries intended to either kill her or to cause grievous harm to her.
He said Nyambura, in her confession, said she felt her husband loved Sheila more than he did her son.
She said she was not happy about her husband's marriage to Eunice Nyawira, the girl's mother, and thought that if Sheila was killed, her husband would return to her.
The four committed the offence on August 2, 2009 at the Civil Servants estate in Kariobangi.
The four visited Nyawira's house and stabbed the housegirl and the baby.
They thought they had killed both, but the househelp survived and lived to testify in the case.
When the girl's father – Kamau – was cross-examined, he said after Nyambura was arrested, she confessed to him she had been involved in the killing.
He said she blamed the devil for persuading her to pay people to kill the girl.
The girl's body had six stab wounds on the right side of the neck and another four on the left side.
According to the postmortem examination, all the wounds were penetrative and severed the blood vessels.
Kamau was married to Nyambura, but later married Nyawira.
Nyawira said Nyambura's son would visit on weekends and there was nothing to suggest animosity between them.
Each of the four convicts confessed to killing the girl, but later recanted.
They said they had been coerced and threatened into signing statements prepared in advance.