- Justice Cherere in the ruling found that it was safe to infer that the act of assaulting Mwiti by the accused persons was not premeditated.
- It was the prosecution’s case that Mwiti was married to Agnes, but they had separated as at the material time the incident happened.
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A woman who conspired with her siblings to kill her estranged husband in Meru has been found guilty of manslaughter.
Agnes Kamunya was convicted alongside her siblings Jeremiah Kamunya, Phineas Kinyua, David Kinyua and Dominiciano Kobia of stabbing Leonard Mwiti alias Mbotela in 2016.
The court said Jeremiah Kamunya absconded during trial.
Justice Wamae Cherere on February 17 found that it was safe to infer that the act of assaulting Mwiti by the accused persons was not premeditated.
The judge said evidence as adduced by the prosecution established beyond reasonable doubt the act of unlawful killing Mwiti by the accused was without malice.
"From the foregoing analysis, I find accused persons guilty of a lesser charge of manslaughter contrary to Section 202 (1) of the Penal Code as read with Section 205 of the Penal Code each one of them is convicted accordingly."
It was the prosecution’s case that Mwiti was married to Agnes, but they had separated as at the material time the incident happened.
Mwiti died from injuries he suffered on the night of December 24 and 25, 2016.
Richard Kaluma, who was Agnes's neighbour, said he knew Mwiti as Agnes's husband.
He said on the material night at about 10:00pm, he arrived home and, on a corridor outside their houses, which was lit with electric lighting, he found Agnes and the other accused persons jointly assaulting Mwiti.
He said when Agnes saw the police on patrol, she closed the door. He later left the place and went to a hotel for supper.
When he returned a few minutes later, he immediately saw the accused persons carrying Mwiti whom they abandoned outside the plot as one of them cleaned the bloodstains on the corridor.
The witness said all the other accused persons went to Agnes's house from where they were arrested.
The witness reported the incident to Mwiti’s brother, Mutwiri, who went to the scene and rushed Mwiti to hospital where he was pronounced dead.
He said Phineas and David were highly intoxicated at the time of their arrest.
A minor who testified in the case said Agnes and Mwiti were her parents.
She said on the material night, she was at home with her mother and three other accused persons who are her relatives.
She said her father came and knocked on the gate demanding to enter their house by force.
Her mother then went out and followed her father to the corridor, where a quarrel ensued between them. It was then that her mother stabbed her father with a knife.
She said her father fell near the gate and her aunt wiped the knife that was used to stab her father.
Tyfany, who was at the scene of crime, said Agnes took a knife that was being used to cut ugali and went out with it, and stabbed Mwiti.
An autopsy conducted on the body of Mwiti by Dr Mohammed Nuri said the deceased died of excessive bleeding due to blunt trauma to the head and multiple stab wounds.
In defence, Agnes denied the offence.
She said on that night, she was returning home from a bar when she met her ex-husband Mwiti who was armed with a knife. He slapped her and threatened to kill her if she didn’t go back to his home.
Agnes said she then stabbed him in self defence and pushed him away, falling on his back near a trench where there were metal bars. That is when she noticed he was bleeding.
She later called the police who took Mwiti to hospital. It is on the same night, she said, she was arrested from her house together with her siblings.
The court said Agnes and Mwiti were husband and wife and had separated for about four months.
"From the circumstances of this case, I find that Mwiti’s act of demanding to enter into accused 1’s house by force in the night after they had had an acrimonious separation was a provocative act," the judge said.
(edited by Amol Awuor)