Man admits to killing his father

Evans Musiomi, he is accused of killing his father Nicholas Ombega on November 3,2016 at Nganoini Village in Njoro, Nakuru County when he appeared before before Lady Justice Janet Mulwa. (Harun Wathari, Standard)

A man has pleaded guilty to killing his father.

This was after the weight of the initial charge he faced was lessened from murder to manslaughter.

Evans Musiomi was arraigned in a Nakuru High Court Wednesday for the second time. He appeared before Justice Janet Mulwa.

He admitted to have killed his 73-year-old father Nicholas Ombega without intending to.

“The particulars of the offence are that the accused killed his father on November 3, 2016 at Nganoini village in Naishi Location, Njoro Sub-County within Nakuru County,” read the charge sheet.

Two years ago, the accused denied a murder charge and a trial commenced.

According to police report, the father to the accused was only a caught up in the middle of a quarrel between the accused and his elder brother, Kennedy Bichange.

The two brothers were said to have been quarrelling for two days over disrespect claims by Bichange.

“Mr Bichange alleged that the accused disrespected him by refusing to fetch him water when he was asked to,” read the report.

The two exchanged bitter words in the evening of November 2, 2016, a day before the father was killed.

Jane Moraa, accused’s mother testified against her son during the trial.

She testified that during the argument that happened on the evening prior to the incident, both her sons were drunk and made a lot of noises raising an alarm to their neighbours.

She said that on the day of the incident, the two were seen fighting at their farm.

“I went to enquire why they were fighting but before I could reach there, the accused threw his brother to the ground,” she said.

She added that the accused explained to her that they were fighting because of a water incident that happened a night before.

The fight according to the mother escalated forcing her husband to intervene and at least try to separate the two.

“My husband complained of the accused’s troublesome behaviour and that provoked the accused to run towards the house while abusing both his father and his brother,” she said.

The father was said to have gone after the accused in a bid to get further explanation for the abuse and quarrel between the two, bearing in mind the accused was the one seemed to have started the whole saga.

It is during the fracas between the father and the accused that the deceased was stabbed to death.

“My son stabbed his father. I do not understand why he killed him since there were no arguments between the two,” said Ms Moraa.

 “I went closer and saw my husband lying down helplessly in a pool of blood which was oozing from his left side. He had been stabbed. I started shouting and my neighbours came,” she lamented.

She also told the court that she informed the villagers that her son was the culprit, but, at that time, the accused had fled the scene.

A village elder testified that he found the murder weapon on November 4, 2016 which was a big knife. He said that it had blood from the middle of the blade to the tip.

Doctor Titus Ngulungu, a pathologist attached to Rift Valley Provisional General Hospital presented a post-mortem report to court.

According to the report conducted at Egerton University Funeral Home, the accused’s body was traumatised from a stab wound.

“The left upper chest had a stab wound. There was a fair abrasions on the anterior aspects of the legs, a slit located at the second intercostal space on the left rib and clotted blood in the chest,” read the post-mortem report.

Dr Ngulungu concluded that the cause of death was the single stab wound to the left chest.

“There was massive blood loss following lung and aorta injury by a sharp trauma to the left chest. The deceased also had a brain injury and he lacked oxygen,” he added.

The accused saw that he had no escape and he together with his attorney negotiated a plea bargain with the prosecution in exchange for a lesser charge of manslaughter.

Wednesday, the high court allowed for a pre-sentencing report to be prepared for the accused.

The accused will appear on December 19 for his mitigation before he is sentenced.