A businessman was yesterday charged before a Nairobi court with manslaughter for killing his estranged wife in a fight over a mattress and household items.
John Otieno denied the charges before principal magistrate Merisa Opondo. He was released on a bond of Sh200,000.
Otieno is accused of killing Eunice Adhiambo outside her new husband’s rented apartment in Soweto Estate, Nairobi on October 12.
The court heard that Otieno and Adhiambo had been married with three children but they separated after they lost two of them. Adhiambo remarried and relocated with their two-year-old child.
On the day of the incident, Otieno had gone to Adhiambo’s husband Eric Oloo to demand belongings he claimed she had left with. The two disagreed.
Neighbours went to intervene after they heard the noise at Oloo’s house and found Otieno collecting some household items he claimed were his.
Otieno insisted the mattress on Oloo’s bed was his and demanded it. But Adhiambo said she had left his mattress at their former house’s balcony. She agreed to go and recover it for him.
But a neighbour and Oloo’s caretaker suspected that Otieno wanted to lure Adhiambo out of the house to harm her. They offered to accompany them as she went to retrieve the mattress.
Adhiambo left followed by Otieno but as the neighbour stepped back to collect his jacket and the caretaker locked his house to follow them.
At that moment, Otieno grabbed and dragged Adhiambo outside the apartment’s compound, wrestled her to the ground before stabbing her on the thigh.
The neighbour, who is the main prosecution witness, saw Otieno use the bloodstained knife to scare residents who attempted to restrain him from running away.
Bleeding profusely, Adhiambo was left lying on the ground. Otieno dropped the knife 100 metres away before he disappeared. The knife is listed as an exhibit.
Adhiambo was rushed to Mama Lucy Hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Otieno was arrested in a single room he had rented in Masimba area in Kayole after the incident.
Hearing of the case starts on March 10 next year.
