• Robi further said that she got shocked and lost consciousness for some time and when she regained, she found the accused strangling the deceased.
• The accused’s father, Thomas Robi is said to be incapacitated due to ill health and was not able to attend court to testify but his statement was read in court.
Image: FILE
A Migori court has found a man who killed sister by strangling her for refusing to let him eat from the sufuria guilty of murder.
High court judge R. Wendow on November 17, ruled that John Muturi Merama was guilty of killing his sister Susan Gati in February 2021 in Kuria.
"After examining the prosecution evidence in its totality, I am satisfied that the prosecution has proved its case to the required standard of beyond reasonable doubt, that the accused attacked the deceased with a metal rod, hit her on the back, she fell down and he went ahead to strangle her leaving her neck and C5 fractured," the judge said.
The magistrate noted that Muturi's defence was hollow, a mere denial.
"I find the accused guilty for the offence of murder contrary to Section 203 of the Penal Code and convict him accordingly," Justice Wendow ruled.
Alice Merama Robi, mother to the accused and the deceased, narrated to court how she was resting under a tree at around 2pm when her daughter, Susan, came from the school she used to work.
Robi was not feeling well. Her husband Thomas Merama was in the house.
After a short while, her son, the accused, arrived and started to interrogate the deceased as to why she had not prepared lunch.
Robi informed Susan to cook the meat that had been brought by the father, and make ugali.
But the accused continued to demand answers on why the deceased had not cooked lunch in time.
Muturi then wanted the deceased to give him the meat on the sufuria when it was still uncooked.
When the deceased tried to excuse herself to get a plate to serve him with meat, the accused stood in the door way and insisted of being served on the sufuria.
The court heard that in the process of her getting out of the kitchen, the accused who had a short metal rod in his hand hit the deceased with it on the back and she fell on her stomach.
She then turned and looked up.
Robi further said that she got shocked and lost consciousness for some time and when she regained, she found the accused strangling the deceased.
She added that once the deceased was hit on her back, she was not able to stand up again.
The accused later served himself meat, ate and went walking around the home.
Robi and her husband could not be able to ask neighbors assist take the deceased to the hospital since Muturi was terror and dangerous as he threatened to kill them too.
Robi told court that the accused had assaulted her before and that people feared him because of his violence and that nobody was willing to come to their aid for fear.
Later, her husband got a motor cycle to take the deceased to hospital but she could not sit on a motor cycle.
They got a vehicle about 5:00p.m and took the deceased to hospital who died at Eldoret hospital.
She added that her husband got shocked when the deceased died and got a stroke.
She further told the court that the accused used to be a normal person, went to polytechnic and later worked in a bank in Tanzania.
She added that the accused drinks alcohol and smokes bhang and becomes violent and that he is a terror.
At one time when in prison at Kehancha, Robi said, the accused did KCPE and got 350 points and was released on grounds that he is a very clever person. She denied that accused has mental problems.
The accused’s father, Thomas Robi is said to be incapacitated due to ill health and was not able to attend court to testify but his statement was read in court.
The postmortem report produced by Dr. Mark Otieno found that the deceased had sustained a back injury and there was spinal injury at C5, there were dark spots all over the lung lobes which suggested exposure to smoke.
The doctor formed the opinion that the cause of death was suffocation.
The injury to the neck caused respiratory failure or breathing.
In his defence, the accused denied murdering his sister save that he found her getting out of the kitchen with a cooking stick and knife.
He said that she blocked him from entering his cubical forcing him to push her out of the way.
He then asked for his lunch and she started to fight with him and the father came out to intervene.