• He killed his father in 2013 because he sold his land and did not support him.
• Confessed because demons or his father's ghost were tormenting him, tearing off his flesh.
Image: FILE
A bus conductor who confessed to killing his father after being haunted by demons who "pricked and removed flesh" has been found guilty.
He was driven to surrender by the suffering inflicted by his murdered father's ghost and spirits demanding justice, he said.
David Mwangi Githambu surrendered in 2013 and confessed he fatally strangled his father for selling family land and failing to support him financially.
High Court Judge James Wakiaga ruled on November 4 evidence pointed to the accused as the killer who seemed under duress from the "haunting".
Githambu told police he had received help from a friend in strangling his father, Erick Githambu Mwangi, at Kiora in Kinoo, Nairobi.
His stepmother Maria Wathere told court that on October 29, 2013, Githambu visited his father with whom she was living as his second wife.
Githambu had come from Naivasha to see his mother. They went to buy Sh200 meat.
While she was cooking, Githambu left with his father to buy changaa. He returned and demanded the logbook for his father's motor vehicle, which he had been using as a taxi.
He told his stepmother he had left his father with another woman and would take her to see him. She noticed his leg was injured and he was limping.
“While we were on the way, somebody came from behind, and held me by the neck and started to strangle me. I fell down and pretended to be dead,” she told the court.
Githambu then stepped on her and said she didn't have the strength of "the other one".
Her stepson and two other people fled. She was rescued by a watchman.
They returned looking for what they thought would be her dead body but she could see them from her hiding place.
“I went home and slept until the next day when a neighbour came to me at 6am am and told asked me to go and check on the body of the deceased [the father],” she said.
She reported to the Kabete police station where her husband used to keep his motor vehicle taxi.
The body had a fresh injury to the neck and the police took it for postmortem.
Wathere, the stepmother, said her husband had sold his plot in Kayole in Naivasha and deposited the proceeds in the bank.
After the burial, she met Githambu at the police station with his mother and a sister of hi father, Monica Mwangi.
Githambu, who initially had been held by police, was released though a complaint had been filed against him.
Anna Wangui, Githambu’s mother, said she received a call informing her Mwangi had been killed.
She said he had inherited a plot from his father, which he sold, despite a caveat that she had placed on the plot.
After selling the plot, he bought a motor vehicle.
Monica Mwangi testified she was told on October 29 that her brother was unwell.
Mwangi went to his house where they found the body. She called Githambu who first said he was in Dandora, then Kijabe. He arrived 20 minutes later.
“His clothes were soiled and blackjack plants were stuck on them," she said.
When she asked him what had happened to him, he did not respond and refused to look at his father's body.
After the postmortem the next day, Erick Mwangi was buried.
Githambu asked for and was given the motor vehicle and the logbook.
Three days after the burial, Githambu went to his mother's house in Naivasha and requested Sh10,000 to start a secondhand clothes business.
Three days later, Githambu arrived with household items and a wife. His mother gave them a room. Three days later, he smashed flower pots in the room where she was running a bar.
“When I asked him what the problem was, he told me he had killed his father and would kill anybody else. I reported him to the police who arrested him but I later forgave him,” she said.
The mother vacated the plot, handing everything over to Githambu.
During his trial, Githambu said he was arrested with a friend after he had drunk alcohol that caused him a mental disturbance.
The chief had instructed him to go to the police station where he was arrested, interrogated and referred to Kabete police station.
Justice Wakiaga said the postmortem report showed death by strangulation, confirming that Githambu illed his father to inherit his property.
“He succeeded and peacefully started to enjoy the property until he was, in his own words "attacked by demonic forces, or as he told the police, his dead father started to haunt him, causing pain and suffering.
"He said his flesh was pierced and torn away, causing him to set the record straight," the justice ruled.
(Edited by V. Graham)