Efforts by a married man to warn his former girlfriend to stop calling him since he was someone’s husband cost him his life. This was confirmed and revealed at the High Court in Machakos, bringing to an end a case that had dragged on for two years.
According to court documents, the accused (named withheld) on December 31, 2015 at Kyanzavi Division in Machakos, killed Albanus Muema after a fierce argument.
This was after the two, who had previously been lovers, got into an argument when the deceased visited the home of the accused to warn her against incessant phone calls and text messages.
After their relationship that lasted slightly over two years, Albanus who was in his mid-twenties got married to another woman. But the accused, then a Form Two girl, never moved on, she kept pestering him for a second chance.
She nagged him via text messages and phone calls, so much so that Albanus had to visit her home to stop her form pestering him. Upon arrival, the deceased was welcomed in the home by the mother and sister to the accused.
After explaining himself, an argument ensued between him and the accused. The tiff spiralled out of control, with the deceased slapping the accused. The accused dashed to the kitchen and emerged with a knife which she used to stab the deceased in the neck. He died minutes later.
Out of guilt, the woman tried to hang herself, but her mother, sister and neighbours stopped her. She was arrested and upon being presented in court, she pleaded guilty to the offence of manslaughter, pointing out that she was young and had been in an intimate relationship with the deceased before he settled down. According to the testimony given in court, their love brewed when the accused joined Form One in 2014. In 2015 the deceased got married but they continued to see each other secretly.
At some point the love affair came into the lime light and elders of the village intervened and resorted that the relationship should come to an end but he continued to pursue the accused, who was 7 years younger.
This made the accused to flee from home and seek for employment as a house help at Makueni County. The lawyer further stated that the deceased did not come in good faith and had the intentions of harming the accused, and that he was clearly the aggressor. She only acted in self-defence, her lawyer argued.
In her mitigation she confessed in the court that she was remorseful and regretted what she did. That for the time she had spent in prison has paid for the offence.
She further urged the court through the lawyer to consider the circumstances of the case and a non-custodial sentence, for she was still a young girl of school-going age, and still has a chance of going back to school and rebuilding her life.
According to the court documents filed on March 9 and April 7 this year, the two reports showed the accused’s home environment is hostile thus making it impossible for non-custodial sentence.
“She may gain more from counselling and getting education and skills while in custody,” reads the judgement partly. “The accused may have been provoked and may not have had the intention of killing the deceased,” said High Court judge Justice P Nyamweya.
“Taking into account the time the accused has spent in custody, I accordingly sentence her to four years imprisonment,” he concluded.