A court in Eldoret, the capital city of Uasin Gishu County in Kenya’s Rift Valley region, has sentenced a man to forty (40) years in prison for killing his girlfriend in 2019 with an axe.
The now-convict, Naftali Kinuthia, had accused Ivy Wangeci of cheating on him with another man before slaughtering her with an axe.
The deceased was a first-year student studying medicine at Moi University in Kenya when Kinuthia killed her tragically.
Justice Reuben Githinji, who presided over the court, declared that Kinuthia had deliberately orchestrated the murder of Wangeci by acquiring an axe for that specific intent.
The judge emphasized that the prosecution had unequivocally demonstrated that Kinuthia, who killed his supposed lover in plain view during daylight, had a premeditated intention to tragically terminate her life.
Furthermore, the judge dismissed the accused’s assertions of a sexual relationship with the deceased, citing a lack of evidence to support such claims.
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“Text messages submitted did not prove that the accused was in a relationship, and he did not also provide any evidence of a sexual relationship,” TUKO.co.ke quotes Justice Githinji as saying.
The convict, who was detained at the Eldoret GK prison, monitored the proceedings remotely as the judge delivered his ruling virtually.
Relatedly, a 45-year-old farmer, Abubakari Numburu, who called the District Chief Executive of Chereponi in the North East Region on the phone to threaten him with death, has been jailed for five years.
The Northern Region’s Yendi Circuit court considered his conduct a violation of section 75 of the Criminal Offences Act 1960, Act 29 and jailed him following his guilty plea.
The prosecution, led by D/C/Inspector Nicodemus York, detailed how Numburu, a farmer residing in Kwame Nansoni, had placed a menacing call to Nashiru Zuwera Muda on November 20, 2023, threatening, “I will kill you if you dare enter Chereponi.”
The alarmed complainant didn’t want to wait for the now-convict to back his death threat with action.
He promptly reported the matter to Chereponi police, who, with the assistance of National Security, apprehended Numburu.
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During the interrogation, Numburu admitted guilt in his caution statement, leading Judge H/H Justice Francis Ayamwuni Asobayire to decree a five-year prison term for the offence.
Section 75 of Act 29, which Justice Ayamwuni Asobayire relied on to sentence Numburu to the 5-year jail term, states:
“Whoever threatens any other person with death, with the intent to put that person in fear of death, is guilty of a second-degree felony.”
This story serves as a cautionary tale about the legal repercussions of making threats with the intent to instil fear, emphasizing the commitment to maintaining public safety and order.
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