A woman locked up her husband and one-and-a half-year old daughter inside their single-room house before setting it on fire, a court has been told.
Diana Kwamboka is charged with the murder of her daughter Brandy Josephine Juma, and husband Juma Antony Mohamed between April 8 and April 9, 2016 at Swabinna Estate in Likoni.
Kwamboka, who was arrested on April 17, 2016, has denied the charges.
Yesterday, Mwajia Sike, then the family's neighbour, told told Justice Dorah Chepkwony he overheard Kwamboka and Juma quarrel at around 6am on April 8, 2016, but never intervened because the two had a habit of arguing.
Sike said: "While in the bathroom, I heard Juma scream and ran out. I saw smoke billowing from his house".
He said Kwamboka was standing outside the burning house, whose door was padlocked, as neighbours tried to put out the fire before her friend arrived with the keys. "When we opened the door, the flames had spread to the entire house," said Sike.
Juma was taken to Manyatta Hospital before being referred to Coast General Hospital, where he died. His sister Mwijo Mwadzombo said she saw Juma in hospital, burnt beyond recognition. She said he died without talking to her. "He died at 9:30pm the day the incident happened," she said.
Mwadzombo said when Kwamboka was arrested in 2016, she told them her daughter had died and she had buried her.
Bakari Keya Saburi, who donated his ancestral graveyard for the child to be buried, said he reported Kwamboka to police after the burial when he learnt she was sought after for the murder of her husband and the infant.
An exhumation order has been given.
Kwamboka's lawyer Lijoodi Osbon accused the witnesses of giving hearsay accounts of the incident, arguing that none of them witnessed Kwamboka set the house ablaze.
Hearing continues.
