Man handed 20 years in prison for killing pregnant wife

A middle aged man has been sentenced to 20 year imprisonment for killing his pregnant wife.

Geoffrey Olero was found guilty of murdering his wife identified as Linda Olero at their Koluoch Village home, Kadumo East Location in Rachuonyo East Sub County on January 18, 2017.

The Judgment was read by Justice Joseph Karanja on behalf of his colleague Hellen Omondi.

Ms Omondi concluded that the matter was manslaughter rather than murder.

“I am convinced that the accused thought this was a way of disciplining the lady but it resulted to death. In my opinion this qualifies to be manslaughter,” said Justice Omondi.

All the five prosecution witnesses who testified in the case implicated Olero. Joshua Okoth who had inherited the Olero's mother said the accused told him that he was fighting with the wife when she got injured.

“The accused told me to forgive them and walked out of the home. When I opened the kitchen door, I found wife lying dead on the floor,” said Okoth.

Felix Ongae, the Olero's maternal uncle had told the court that the accused sought protection at his home after disagreeing with his wife. He added that the lady had failed to get up after he had slapped her.

Doctor Peter Ogola who conducted postmortem at Rachuonyo South Sub County Hospital, said Olero's wife death was caused by injuries she had sustained.

Ogola indicated that she suffered injuries which caused separation of the placenta from the uterus in her womb. The heinous act occurred when Linda had a seven moth pregnancy.

“The death resulted from severe hemorrhage due to separation of the placenta from the uterus. There was also bruising from the brain besides injury on the trunk,” the Doctor’s report indicated.

But Olero denied committing the offense saying his wife died in his absence.

“I was not at home on the day my wife died since gone to work and never returned. When I returned home, the following day, police came and arrested me claiming that I had killed someone,” he said.

But this was objected by Prosecutor Valery Ongeti who argued that the evidence given by other witness could convince an ordinary person that the accused killed his wife.

 The accused has 14 days to appeal.