Kenyan woman who killed husband over food jailed for five years

A woman who killed her drunk husband in a fight over food will spend five years in prison after pleading guilty.

High Court judge Roslyn Korir gave the woman labelled as CMW the 'lenient' sentence, noting that she had an opportunity of changing. At the same time, her family had tried to reconcile after the incident, which happened four year ago.

The judge said efforts by the two families to reconcile were a noble cause, which ought to be encouraged as a way of maintaining peace.

The woman had pleaded for a non-custodial sentence, after a plea bargaining arrangement with the Prosecution, but the court noted that the evidence before the court showed her threatening the husband with death before.

The woman had been charged with murder but the State reduced the charge to manslaughter after she agreed to plead guilty on November 24, 2014.

Justice Korir in her judgment dated February 9, 2015 also noted that the woman fled after stabbing the father of her two children instead of calling for help.

"The facts of this case, however, demonstrate that the accused was given to violence and ill-intention against her husband. It is documented that she had threatened him with death before. On the fateful date, after viciously stabbing him twice, she fled instead of seeking help to save his life," Korir ruled.

"Having considered the circumstances of this case, the probation report and the mitigation offered, I do not consider the accused fit for a non-custodial sentence. I am of the view that she will benefit from rehabilitation in custody. Taking into consideration the period she has been in custody, I sentence her to 5 years' imprisonment," she ruled.

In the case, the court heard that on the night of July 30 the husband went home drunk and demanded food although he had not provided any money for the same.

A quarrel ensued during which the man ordered the wife to leave. She declined to get out of the house without her three-year-old daughter.

The man is said to have picked a knife in a bid to stab her, but the woman overpowered him and stabbed him in the chest twice. She fled from the scene of crime.

A probation report produced in court indicated that the two constantly fought, and that she had threatened to someday kill him.