Woman to serve four years in jail for beating nine-year-old son to death

The sentence will run from December 27, 2019, when she was first arrested and remanded. [Courtesy]

A woman who beat her nine-year-old son to death has been sentenced to serve four years in prison.

Grace Njeri Kanyuru, 40, was convicted by Justice Kanyi Kimondo after she entered a plea-bargain agreement with the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

The judge ordered that the sentence will run from December 27, 2019, when she was first arrested and remanded.

The DPP, while presenting the change of plea to a manslaughter count, told the court that after the incident, Njeri presented herself to the police and confessed what happened.

“She is a first offender and remorseful for what happened," the prosecutor said.

While delivering the judgment, Justice Kimondo said the sentence should be commensurate to the moral blameworthiness of the offender but also be guided by the nature and gravity of the crime. 

“I sentence the accused to four years in prison. I considered the mitigation tendered by the defence that she has three other children and regrets her conduct. But in all this, an innocent life was lost,” said the judge.

During the trial, the prosecution informed the court that on December 27, 2019, the accused beat Joseph Githaiga mercilessly and left him for dead outside a tea-buying centre in Ngorogocho village, Kinyona, Kigumo sub-county.

Grace Njeri Kanyuru, 40, entered a plea-bargain agreement with the DPP. [Courtesy]

An autopsy report indicated that Githaiga died from a head injury as a result of blunt force trauma.

In the same court, a 58-year-old woman accused of killing a man will serve four years in jail.

Margaret Njeri Kamau was charged that on the night of May 19, 2018, she killed her friend Boniface Kitui and dumped the body by the roadside.

In her statement, the accused had stated that Kitui collapsed in the bedroom.

Representing the facts after a plea-bargain agreement, the DPP told the court that Njeri had invited Kitui to her home in Githagara village, Mugoiri, but suffered breathing problems.

The body was discovered by the public by the roadside and had a cut on the head and at the back.

In his judgment, Justice Kimondo said the accused dragged the hapless man to the roadside with the help of another man.

”It is not clear if he died in the bedroom or on the roadside. The accused claimed that the deceased was on his way out from her house when he fell on his back and collapsed,” said the judge.

Her sentence will run from May 20, 2018, the date she was arrested and remanded.