How CCTV footage exposed nanny's five-hour torture that led to toddler's death

A CCTV installed in a modern house in Nakuru. [File, Standard] A Closed-Circuit Camera Television (CCTV) installed in a homestead helped unravel the mysterious death of a three-year-old girl killed by her nanny. A forensic expert, Samson Ogutu, presented the CCTV footage in a Nakuru High Court, capturing Eunice Adhiambo torturing the girl to death in Nakuru County three years ago. The emotional clip played in the court captured Adhiambo, charged with the murder of a three-year-old girl, Talia Wairimu, on July 27, 2022, at Lanet Estate, torturing the girl for five hours. The analyst, Ogutu, testified before Judge Samwel Mohochi that he received a CCTV Digital Video Recorder (DVR) on August 22, 2022, and requested that he extract footage captured on July 27, 2022, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. "Upon receiving the CCTV footage, I extracted, analyzed, and processed it, then developed 37 photos," he added. Ogutu testified to having narrowed the clips after watching and allegedly saw Adhiambo kicking and assaulting the girl at around 1 pm, which continued up to 6:20 pm. Silence filled the courtroom as the video played, exposing a five-hour ordeal that left the girl suffering in the hands of her caregiver. The camera captured Adhiambo going to the kitchen garden, where she picked a PPR pipe and then used it to beat baby Wairimu. She would later throw the baby outside, hitting her head as she locked her outside to be rained on. The nanny was captured beating the girl and mercilessly threw her to the floor. "At around 4 pm, she removed her clothes and started beating her inside the kitchen. The child was unresponsive. One hour later, her cousins arrived from school, the nanny handed over the pipe to them, and they continued hitting her," Ogutu added. By 6:20 pm, the girl was unresponsive. The nanny was captured giving her medication, then dressed, and rushed to the hospital. The analyst opined that the child died as a result of the five-hour assault. Wairimu was under the care of her aunt, Cecilia Nyambura, who hired Adhiambo as a nanny. Her mother, Bendetti Wanjiru, testified that she was away in Kiambu County, taking care of her sick mother, when she learned of her daughter's death. "On January 9, 2022, I handed my daughter over to my sister, who would remain with her until I'm stable. She had two children aged nine and six then, and had a house help, so I knew it was ideal for me," she said. On July 27, at 7 pm, she received a call from her sister informing her that her baby had collapsed and had been rushed to the hospital. "I traveled to Nakuru and learn that my daughter had died; she was buried on July 30," she added. On August 1, 2022, her brother-in-law, she said, while reviewing CCTV footage, stumbled upon a reel where the baby was being tortured. She was informed, forcing her to travel to Nakuru to review the footage. "I was tormented seeing the nanny strangling the child in the sitting room, hitting her with a pipe all over the body, stripping her naked before tossing her into the rain," the teary mother recalled. She explained that the footage would later show her niece rescuing the child; initially, she watched her daughter collapse. Wanjiru reported the incident at Lanet Police Station. Adhiambo was arrested on August 3, 2022. A postmortem conducted on August 11, 2022, showed that the baby died as a result of torture, strangulation, and beating. A minor who witnessed the incident testified in court that when she arrived home on the fateful day, she found Wairimu (the deceased) lying on the floor outside the house, and she was being rained on. She told the judge that their house had a verandah where her cousin was lying unresponsive. "She was lying face up, sprawling and naked. I carried her into the house, where I found Adhiambo, who instructed me to lay the child on the floor," she testified. She added, "I did not ask why the baby was lying outside and without clothes. While I was going to change my clothes, our nanny forced me to take a pipe she was holding and hit the deceased; I refused. The nanny had a habit of beating up the baby whenever she wet her bed." She explained that their nanny was harsh on her, which prompted her to flock to the minor, who was unresponsive. After the ordeal, the accused took the deceased to their bedroom and dressed her. She noticed the baby's temperature rising and gave her some medication before taking her to the hospital. "She told my brother and me to go to our neighbour's house, saying she was going to take Talia to the hospital. She came back weeping and explained that my cousin had died, we waited for my mother, and we were told not to tell anyone what had happened," she added. The case will be further heard on November 22.

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