Pregnant woman jailed for killing husband

By Wahome Thuku

Pregnancy has saved a woman from possible life imprisonment for killing her husband.

Ms Florence Gathoni Njugi, 30, will serve only three months in jail even after admitting stabbing her husband Brian Karanja in a domestic argument.

The couple had been childless for ten years. The woman killed her husband three weeks after she conceived.

It was after she had pleaded guilty to manslaughter last week that her lawyer told the High Court that she was pregnant with Karanja’s child.

The pregnancy was first established during a medical examination after her arrest.

Karanja’s relatives broke down after the sentence was pronounced.

"There’s no justice in these courts," a sister said.

Trial Judge Muga Apondi had twice deferred the sentence to await pregnancy test results.

He had first ordered that the tests be done at Kenyatta National Hospital, but directed that another be done at Nairobi’s Pumwani Maternity Hospital after results were delayed.

Gathoni, a secretary at a city company, killed the husband at their home in Thome Five estate, Nairobi, on January 11.

The couple fought over Gathoni’s claims that Karanja had an affair with another woman. She picked a knife in the kitchen and stabbed the husband. She denied a murder charge but pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

State Counsel James Ong’ondo said the man was stabbed as he attempted to injure the wife with the same knife. He died two days later at a city hospital.

A post-mortem examination report indicated that Karanja had several injuries.

But there was no evidence that all the injuries had been caused by Gathoni.

A doctor from KNH confirmed on Wednesday that the woman was 19 weeks and three days pregnant.

The judge said it was ironical for the accused to use her pregnancy to seek leniency. He, however, added: "Had it not been for the pregnancy, this court would have passed a longer custodial sentence."

Though Gathoni was given 14 days to appeal this would most likely be determined long after she has left jail.