The High Court has reduced the life sentence of a man who was convicted for slashing his wife with a sword and cutting off her left arm.
Justice David Majanja ruled that Patrick Kagundu Mungira will instead serve a 12-year jail term.
Mungira was charged with causing grievous harm to Alice Kathambi on August 16, 2016, in Mburikene village, Imenti North, Meru.
He pleaded not guilty.
Mungira and the complainant were husband and wife at the time of the offence. The two were not in good terms.
“It appears they had a disagreement and she went to her parents’ home,” court papers read.
The next day, Mungira followed his wife to her parents’ home where she had locked herself up.
The accused broke into the house, slashed Kahambi with a sword on the face, legs and cut off her left hand at the elbow.
The court had ordered a sentencing review report, which showed that Mungira had been assaulting his wife and she had sustained serious injuries, including losing her teeth.
He had also been threatening his sisters not to reveal the abuse.
Mungira was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by a magistrate’s court in Meru on February 28, 2019.
He appealed the sentence at the High Court, accusing the magistrate of imposing a harsh sentence.
The accused asked for forgiveness and admitted that he had assaulted the complainant.
Majanja ruled out the possibility of a non-custodial sentence.
“The facts disclose that the appellant was a man of violent tempers who deliberately went to the complainant’s parents’ home and proceeded to inflict deadly violence on her,” he said.
Majanja allowed the appeal to quash the life sentence and substituted it with 12 years in jail.
Edited by P.O
