All I want is justice for my son’s murder, cries mother of butchered toddler

Joseph Muthyangya, Nzauni Location Chief  PHOTO/STANDARD

Kitui, Kenya: Anne Mwenze is a deeply troubled and a traumatised woman. The brutal killing of her three-year-old son by her relative, and the subsequent acquittal of the suspect in controversial circumstances emotionally haunts Mwenze, who hails from Nzauni village in Kitui County.

The case that was concluded on April 3 at the High Court in Machakos was riddled with inconsistencies — there are now suspicions that the prosecution was involved in a deliberate and calculated scheme to bungle  investigations and pevert the course of justice.

On October 7, 2006 at about noon, Mwenze left home to join a women’s group in the neighbourhood, leaving behind her son with Mulandi Musyoka, her husband’s stepbrother. Musyoka, then 14, was a Form One student at Nzauni Secondary School.

Musyoka is said to have left the homestead with the boy to tend to livestock nearby. This could explain why the mother did not find them when she returned home at around 6pm.

Emotional wreck

When dusk was setting in, Musyoka showed up, but without the toddler. He claimed the baby had disappeared in the grazing fields.

Mwenze quickly began the search for her son. “I rallied some neighbours and we began the search for my son. However, before long it was pitch dark and we retreated back to our homes,” she says. That is one night Mwenze describes as emotionally draining. “I couldn’t sleep.”

At daybreak, the search resumed, with villagers scouring valleys and thickets in search of the child.

In the meantime, Musyoka vanished. Unknown to the search team, the teenager had boarded a bus at the nearby Migwani market and was headed to Nairobi.

Mwenze reported the disappearance of  her son to Nzauni Assistant Chief Antony Muthui Mungeli, who mobilised more people to help in the search. They were later joined by the area chief Joseph Musyoka Muthyangya.

The mother was now an emotional wreck, her mind filled with foreboding. Somewhere in the valleys, wails rent the air. Some members of the search party stumbled upon a gory sight — the lifeless body of the baby, bearing horrific injuries.

Like a zombie, the mother accompanied the team to the scene. When she saw the bloodied remains of her son, her knees gave way and she collapsed in a heap.

“There lay my son, lifeless with unsightly wounds,” she says, tears forming in her eyes. Beside the body, she says, were three stones, used to snuff out the infant’s life. There was also a rope and a bottle of a pesticide.

Chief Muthangya corroborates this account. “The body had injuries to the face and one of its hands was broken. There was also a small rope and a bottle of sukumawiki pesticide.”

At this time Musyoka was cruising past Thika. But his flight was short-lived. The matatu crew, suspicious on account of his young age and his unconvincing reasons for going to the city, decided to contain him in the vehicle and return him home.

Upn arrival, Musyoka was arrested and taken to Migwani Police Station. He was interrogated the following day in the presence of the child’s mother and the chief. The two claim the teenager admitted killing the infant. “He admitted killing the baby, first by using the rope to strangle him. He then sprinkled the poison on a guava fruit and fed the child. When these seemed to take too long, he said he stoned the baby until he kicked his last,” the chief says.

Eight witnesses

The mother says that whenever she recalls hearing Musyoka unflinchingly narrate the macabre killing of her son to the police, she would throw up, then faint.

“His unemotional narration on how he killed my child left me terribly wounded. He claimed to have been possessed by the devil,” says the mother.

A post-mortem examination was conducted at Mwingi District Hospital.

According to Mwenze and the chief, the autopsy revealed that the child succumbed to multiple injuries inflicted using blunt objects.

Curiously, the post-mortem examination report was never presented in court and this contributed largely to the dismissal of the case.

It is not clear why the police withheld this crucial evidentiary document.

Musyoka was formally charged with murder at the High Court sitting in Machakos after he attained the age of 18. This time, he denied committing the offence.

Eight witnesses, among them the chief, his assistant, the child’s mother and the suspect’s father, were called to testify.

Missing testament

In court, Mwenze says she noted some pages of her statement were missing. “I went through it and noted some missing parts, it was very inconsistent. However, I was afraid of raising the matter with the court,” said the mother of four.

The parents are now asking: Who plucked out parts of Mwenze’s statement and what was the motive?

While acquitting the suspect on April 3, Judge Lillian Mutende tore into the prosecution for laxity.

Mutende noted: “This is a case where at the close of the prosecution, no medical evidence had been adduced. Without evidence of post-mortem (examination), there would be no proof of actus reus  (intent).”

She added: “The question that remains unanswered is whether there was any killing? And assuming it happened, the next question would be; what was the cause? It is only a postmortem exam report that would have solved this mystery.”

“The prosecution was to prove that injuries sustained by the deceased were consistent with an intention to kill. This evidence was not adduced.”

The judge concluded by stating that the prosecution failed in discharging the burden of proof, thereby acquitting Musyoka of murder charges.

On learning that Musyoka had been set free, Mwenze’s heart sank. She feels there will be no closure unless the case is reviewed.

“It is obvious that somebody interfered with this case. It should be re-opened for proper and thorough investigation so that justice can be served,” she says.

Muthangya was shocked to learn the matter had been thrown out. “This case had overwhelming evidence. The investigating officers should tell us why they left the postmortem examination report out yet it should have formed part of the evidence. The case should be appealed,” said the administrator.

Musyoka’s family was delighted with the ruling that freed their kin from inevitable conviction.

Kalekye Musyoka, his mother, said her family was now extending an olive branch to the family of the murdered child with a view to restoring peace in the family.

Family reconciliation

“The parents of that child are my children and our desire is to have peace in the family. We have already sent word to them calling for a reconciliation meeting so that we can forge ahead peacefully. The court did not find my son guilty of the murder charges, so we need peace,” said Kalekye.

Asked if she thought her son had committed murder, she responded: “I was away at the  women’s group (meeting) together with the child’s mother, so I wouldn’t know what happened. I was caught by surprise like everybody else”.

But John Mwenze, the child’s father who was at work in Nairobi when his son was killed, has dismissed the idea of a family reconciliation. “I am not ready to sit with anybody to negotiate over this matter. It is true they have sent emissaries but we dismissed them. Justice must prevail,” a bitter John says.