On February 16, 2012, at about 9:30am, Wycliffe Mokaya got a call from his brother Nelson Ambani requesting him to call the police and come over to his (Ambani’s) house so they can take his wife to hospital.
On receiving his brother’s call, Mokaya rushed to Ambani’s house and when he got there, he knocked on the door but there was no response. He called out his brother’s name and dialed his number, but still there was no answer.
Mokaya then pushed the door opened and encountered the grisly sight of his brother lying unconscious and shirtless on the bed bleeding profusely from the chest.
Lying next to Ambani was his wife Doreen Ayuma whose body was partially on the bed and on the floor. She was bleeding profusely from several stab wounds on her stomach, chest, and hands.
Once police arrived, it was ascertained that Ayuma was dead but Ambani still had a pulse. Mokaya then rushed his brother to Coast General Hospital for treatment as police moved Ayuma’s body to the mortuary.
Before the horrible incident, Ambani and Ayuma had been married for three years. They lived in a single room behind a small shop in Changamwe, Mombasa County, with their five-year-old daughter from a previous relationship.
However, for the past six months, the relationship between the two had become strained because they had not been able to conceive a child.
In an attempt to resolve their infertility the couple had visited several doctors but Ayuma was frustrated and wanted to adopt a three-month-old baby.
On February 28, 2012, Ambani was arraigned in court charged with murder and he pleaded not guilty to the charges.
In his defense, Ambani narrated how on that fateful morning, Ayuma served him tea that had a foul odour which made him suspect it was laced.
He refused to drink the tea and this led to a quarrel with the main issue being their inability to conceive. Ambani claimed Ayuma stabbed him and he fought back in self defense.
In his ruling, the judge said while there was no malicious aforethought in the killing of Ayuma, Ambani was still guilty of manslaughter. He sentenced him to 15 years.
Unhappy with the sentence, Ambani appealed to have his sentence reduced to seven years.
On May 27, 2016, Court of Appeal Judges Milton Asike
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