Nyeri woman who killed husband handed 30 years in jail

The late Francis Mukio is said to have gone home drunk leading to a confrontation with his wife who stabbed him several times. [Courtesy]

A 28-year-old woman will spend 30 years in jail for killing her drunk husband following a domestic quarrel.

Emily Mukiri was sentenced yesterday by High Court judge Justice Abigael Mshila after she pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter.

The offence was reduced from murder after a plea bargain with the prosecution.

She admitted killing her 34-year-old husband Francis Mukio on the night of August 16 and 17, 2018 at their home in Muthinga shopping centre, Tetu sub-county.

According to facts of the incident, Ms Mukiri stabbed Mukio in the abdomen and face with a knife following a domestic quarrel.

Mukio is said to have gone home drunk at around 1am, leading to a confrontation with his wife.

Ms Mukiri picked up a kitchen knife and stabbed Mukio, who was a miraa trader, multiple times in the abdomen and face.

Stab injuries

She then left him in the house bleeding and went to the local shopping centre.

Hours later, Mukio received a phone call from a police officer attached to Muthinga Police Station, informing him that his wife had been arrested for disorderly conduct and that he should bail her out.

Mukio informed the officer that she had also assaulted him and left him for dead.

He succumbed to his stab injuries at Nyeri County Referral Hospital.

But in mitigation Ms Mukiri’s lawyer Lucy Mwai urged the court to take into consideration the Victim Impact Report that touched on Ms Mukiri’s history of being battered by Mukio.

Drug abuse history

The extracts of the police Occurrence Book (OB) Reports were annexed as evidence of the assaults by Mukio meted out to the accused and also the threats he made to kill her.

The report indicates that Mukio also had a history of drug abuse.

The lawyer  urged the court to consider the accused person’s youthful age of 28 years, and the fact that she has two children aged 10 and seven.

The court heard that all the while the accused has been in custody, the children have been living with her cousin aged 21.

But in her ruling, Justice Mshila said the crime committed could only be deemed as unfortunate as a life was lost.

The judge also said the accused deserved a custodial sentence.