Director of Public Prosecutions digs into case of woman named in scheme to kill husband

Edward Maina showing the scars he sustained following the attack by a hitman. (Photo:John Mutua)

By Paul Wafula

KENYA: The Director of Public Prosecutions has ordered a review of criminal investigations into claims by a hired hitman that he received Sh10,000 from a woman to kill her estranged husband.

The country’s chief prosecutor has requested the director of Criminal Investigations Department (CID) to forward the contents of a six-month investigation into Ms Damaris Wambui’s role in the attempted murder of his former husband Edward Maina Nguchuga in Rongai, near Nairobi, in January this year.

Wambui was named by the self-confessed hitman, Boniface Ateka Ongara, during his trial for attempted murder in a Kibera court earlier this year as the person who approached him at a Rongai shopping mall with the offer of Sh50,000 to kill Maina, a Nairobi ICT expert.

But Wambui has denied any involvement and called on the police to get to the bottom of the matter.

“My biggest wish is to know why the hitman implicated me. If I wanted to kill Maina, which I didn’t, I wouldn’t have gone for a former watchman who knew both of us very well. We had hired him and terminated his services but I do not know why he had such bitterness,” Wambui said in a telephone interview this week.

The DPP seeks to know, in a letter signed by Ms Mary Mwenje, the head of complaints and compliments unit at the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), why the pace of investigations had slowed down.

 “I have been directed by the Director of Public Prosecutions to forward the complaint letter on the above mentioned matter to you for your action and forward the file to our office for perusal and advice,” the letter to the CID reads in part.

Maina, an IT officer at one of the NSE-listed banks in Nairobi was early this year stabbed several times in his Nkoroi (Rongai) home and left bleeding on the floor by the lone attacker. But he was able to positively identify the attacker as his former watchman when his hood fell off during the ensuing struggle.

Ateka was quickly arrested soon after and hauled to court where he said that Maina’s wife of 10 years had paid him money to kill him with a promise of more after “completing the job”.

In an interview this week, Maina recalled that the first person he saw when he opened his eyes in hospital was his then-estranged wife now accused of the crime.

“But all this time, it had not dawned me on who might be behind the attack. When I was able to talk, I revealed who attacked me. But I couldn’t imagine that my wife’s name could have anything to do with it,” Maina says.

The following day, his attacker was arrested and taken to court. The testimony of his attacker completely shook him.

Ateka stunned the Kibera court when he told then acting chief Magistrate David Ochenja, that he had been paid a deposit of Sh10,000 to kill Maina by his own wife.   

The wheels of justice turned swiftly for Ateka: Arrested on Wednesday a day after the attack on Tuesday January 22, he was tried on Thursday and sentenced to 20 years’ in prison by the acting Chief Magistrate on Friday.

According to the court ruling, sometimes in September 2012, Wambui had a dispute with her husband, Maina, at their home in Nkoroi forcing them to separate.

“Sometimes last week, the wife of the complainant approached the accused to go and kill the husband and promised to pay him Sh50,000 for the job if he succeeded,” the judgment reads in part.

Denying any role, Wambui accuses the hitman of a personal vendetta against her in the testimony. She alleges the hitman whispered to her that he would implicate her.

“He contradicts his statement when he says we met at two different places when interviewed separately. These are mere allegations and it is upon the police to act on them and prove beyond any reasonable doubt that I was involved. Before I die, I also want to know who hired him to kill Maina,” she says.

But the attacker, whom we later met at Kamiti Prison, confessed to entering Maina’s home at about 7pm. When The Standard visited him in prison, Ateka insisted six months after he was jailed, he was paid by Maina’s wife at Rongai.

“We met outside Tuskys supermarket in Rongai and that is where Maina’s wife gave me the money. This followed an earlier meeting at Rongai where she approached me and asked me to find a way of doing away with Maina. I regret this day,” Ateka says. This meeting has however been denied by Wambui.

“I hope one day I will be able to apologise to Maina in person, but what comforts me is that he survived the ordeal. I don’t know what overpowered me, but it is inexcusable,” Ateka says.

After receiving the money on January 22, he says he went to Maina’s home and hid under the bed waiting for his victim. 

Recent reports of wives allegedly hiring hitmen to kill their husbands have added to the 49-year-old’s anxiety and he now wants the police to investigate his wife’s role if any.

Since that night, Maina has had sleepless nights. He is afraid of being just another statistic in in the growing list of Kenyan men who have faced hitmen hired by their wives. What pains him is the slow pace of investigations after the self-confessed killer was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

“He was just the person hired to kill me. I want police to get to the bottom of this. If it is my wife, then she must be brought to book. What is not debatable is the person who wanted to kill me is still out there, they may have failed but I am scared they may come after me,” he says.

He says the fear of another hitman has made him live like a dead man already.

Maina has complained to the DPP over the slow investigations in light of the danger on his life. According to the letter in reply, the office of the DPP has requested the director of criminal investigations to act on the matter.

 “I had a series of disagreements with my wife from as far back as 2008, but I never imagined they could escalate to this magnitude,” Maina says in an interview.

“The biggest disagreement that eventually broke us apart was on a parcel of land I bought in Nkoroi at Sh620,000. My wife received the title deed on my behalf and claimed to have deposited it with a bank in a safe deposit box. She was hesitant to let me see it to ensure it was properly written,” he says.

Today, the value of the piece of land has doubled and conservative estimates value it at Sh1.2 million. Later in 2010, Maina bought a second piece of land near the same location for commercial development. This only served to worsen the relationship between the two who were hardly talking.

Maina and his wife disagreed on how to construct commercial units on the land. But as soon as the construction was completed by end of May, the building was fully occupied.

He resisted a proposal to co-own the project with his wife. This made things turn from bad to worse.

“This commercial plot was a major source of squabbles. There were days it was so bad that I could drive all the way from Nkoroi to town without saying more than two words,” he added,” Maina says.  

The most visible scar of this assault is the weakness of his right hand. For the past half a year, Maina has struggled to button his shirt.

Every morning, he also has trouble igniting his car to drive to work. The man who works in the IT department of a leading bank also struggles to write and type on the keyboard due to a dysfunctional index finger and an impaired thumb.

But the biggest scar according to Maina is the fact that his wife may have had something to do with it.