Mitchell Nafula was just one year and one month old when her short life ended in tragedy.
She had only just begun trying to walk and didn’t feel like trying again on June 15, 2017.
Her father, Maonja Ngowa, was irked by the stubborn toddler’s tantrum and assaulted her repeatedly with a cane and a small stick.
She died three days later in hospital. Ngowa was convicted of murder and sentenced to 25 years in prison in September 2017.
The postmortem showed the girl had suffered a neck fracture and intracranial bleeding that caused her death.
Now, eight years later on June 25, the Court of Appeal in Mombasa has upheld the 25-year sentence.
On the day of the beating, witnesses — including two children aged 11 and 12 — testified that they saw Ngowa strike the baby with sticks on her back, buttocks, and head as he shouted at her to walk.
One child, the victim’s sister, told the court their father used both a cane and a small stick.
When Nafula lost consciousness, Ngowa washed her body with water, applied ashes to her bruises, and put her to bed.
Her mother, Rukia, returned home later and found her daughter injured but alive. The family did not immediately seek medical attention.
They waited three days. When they took her to hospital, it was too late.
A post-mortem also showed signs of blunt-force trauma to her back, pelvic area, eyes, and head.
The medical evidence confirmed what the eyewitnesses had seen — a brutal, sustained assault.
Ngowa maintained that he did not intend to kill his daughter and that he had only been trying to help her learn to walk. He said she fell and hurt herself.
His lawyer said malice aforethought had not been proven.
Three judges of the Court of Appeal disagreed, citing the force and repetition of the beatings, the targeting of vulnerable parts of the body, the child’s tender age and the delay in seeking medical help.
They called these clear indicators of intent.
“The child’s only fault was that she could not walk when the appellant demanded she begin to walk,” the court stated.
