Woman goes free after pleading guilty to manslaughter in husband's death

Residents carry the body of Joseph Gitari 21, from her rented single room at Uwaso Nyiro Village on November 3,2016 to a waiting police vehicle. [Kibata Kihu/Standard]

A woman who killed her husband in November last year at Uaso Nyiro Trading centre in Kieni West has been set free by the court after cutting a deal to plead guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.

Nyeri High Court Justice Jairus Ngaah sentenced Everlyne Kawira to three years in jail but suspended the sentence on condition that she does not commit any other offence and goes for probation during the period.

Kawira, a mother of two, was charged with the November 2, 2016 murder of Joseph Gitari but entered a plea deal with the State to plead guilty for manslaughter in exchange for a reduced sentence.

She confessed before the court that she had unintentionally killed her husband after a night out at Uaso Nyiro Trading Centre where they had been drinking.

At around 11 PM, she said, she and Gitari, retired back to their house where they disagreed over food and fought.

It is in the course of the fight that the deceased was stabbed. His body was found in the house. He had been stabbed on the chest and the middle finger.

After discovering that Gitari was dead, the court was told, the accused ran way but was arrested while on her way to Meru, where her parents live.

She was arrested with the deceased’s personal items including his identity card and employment documents.

After she was arraigned and pleaded guilty, Kawira asked the court to consider a lighter sentence.

She explained that she had had no intention of killing the deceased but that her action may have largely been influenced by the effect of alcohol and khat on her sense of judgment.

She also admitted that she and Gitari enjoyed a cordial relationship and had a child together.

“The child is a little over a year old and needs the motherly care in an environment more suitable than a prison,” she told the court.

The court heard that Kawira was a mother of two minors one of whom was a toddler and reasoned that they would be deprived of motherly care if their mother is incarcerated.

Justice Ngaah also heard that the couple were used to fighting, especially while inebriated and that Kawira had moved in with Gitari a week before he was killed.

The accused relatives described her as an obedient and hardworking person but her character changed when she started working as a barmaid in Chogoria before she met Gitari.

Kawira said she regretted having killed the deceased since her sense of judgment was impaired.

"I appreciate that she is remorseful. She killed the deceased after a drunken stupor. I am persuaded that she did not set out to kill the deceased considering her history with the deceased, that they were used to fighting but still lived together,“ the court said.

Justice Ngaah continued: "I have to juggle between punishing the offence, subject of course to the mitigating factors I have pointed out, and the competing interests of the minors.

This balancing act leads me to sentence the accused person to three years imprisonment save that the sentence shall be suspended on condition that the accused does not commit any other offence.... For this reason, she will be subjected to the supervision of the probation officer during the three years that the sentence is suspended. She is otherwise set at liberty unless she is lawfully held."

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