- The court had denied her bail
- This is after relatives said that they didn't trust her
Image: GEORGE MURAGE
The woman who killed her four children in Naivasha two years ago through strangulation will now know her fate in three weeks after she pleaded guilty to the charges.
Beatrice Mwenda who has been at the Naivasha women prison changed her mind and admitted to the four charges of murder before High Court judge Grace Nzioka.
Mwende has been charged that on the night of June 26 and 27, 2020, she murdered through strangulation the minors in Kabati estate in Naivasha.
The minors who were killed were identified as Melody Warigia (8 years), Willy Macharia (6 years), Samantha Njeri (4 years) and Whitney Nyambura (2 years).
While appearing virtually from the women's prison where she is being held, Mwende told the judge that after a long consultation with her advocate she wanted to change her plea.
The prosecutor Nelly Maingi read the four charges to her before describing how the accused murdered the four minors one after the other.
According to Maingi, the accused started by killing the youngest girl by strangling her before repeating the same to the other three.
She would sleep in the same house until the following morning where she left and informed her relatives that she had committed a grievous crime and sought their forgiveness.
The prosecution told the court that the accused was arrested hours later in a lodging in Kayole estate in Naivasha before she was arraigned.
“The post mortem report indicates that the minors died through strangulation and the accused is a first offender who does not have any past criminal record,” said the prosecutor.
Mwende admitted to the charges as read before her by the prosecutor noting that the facts as presented in court were true.
The judge noted that the accused had been convicted on her own plea of guilty, adding that she needed a presentence report before making her judgment on December 1, 2022.
Earlier, the probation office in a report advised the court to decline offering the accused bond or bail as the family was not yet ready to accommodate her.
The report noted that the security of the sixth born in a family of 15 was not guaranteed in her rural home in Murungaru Kinangop or Naivasha where the incident occurred.
“The family fears that if released on bond she might kill someone else and though they are financially stable, they are not ready to stand bail for her,” reads the report.