Widow handed 30 years in jail for murder of husband

By WILFRED AYAGA

NAIROBI; KENYA: A fifty-year-old businesswoman was on Tuesday sentenced to thirty years in prison for the murder of her husband who worked as a senior manager at the Central Bank of Kenya.

Justice Nicholas Ombija convicted Janet Karamana and her five co-accused for conspiring to kill Moses Mbaabu Gituma at his home in Garden Estate, Nairobi.

Each of the co-accused was handed a similar sentence. Those convicted were Evans Obangi Otwori, Lawrence Kariuki Githinji, Andrew Muuo Kimomo, Anthony Muthii Mati and Peter Maina Kibe.

Another co-accused, Clement Munyao Katiku, was granted his freedom due to lack of evidence. Gituma died four-years-ago when five men drove into his home and attacked him with machetes and other crude weapons.

According to a post-mortem report presented in court during the trial, the deceased suffered multiple internal organ injuries that led to his admission in hospital before he finally succumbed to his wounds.

The trial judge agreed with the prosecution evidence that Karamana led Gituma’s assailants into the compound on the night of October 23, 2009, before they killed her husband who arrived at 1am.

Head injuries

The post-mortem report showed that the deceased also suffered head, mouth and face injuries during the attack. Passing the judgment, Justice Ombija described the accused as ‘a schemer per excellence’ and noted that she had conspired with her co-accused to murder Gatimu in cold blood.

During the trial, the prosecution had informed the court that on the material day, the accused had left her salon at 8pm before driving into her compound together with the would-be killers.

“She intentionally left her car at the salon and drove into Garden Estate accompanied by her co-plotters in a car bearing a fake registration number KBH 657J,” prosecution counsel Daniel Karuri informed the court.

Evidence also revealed that the second co-accused, Evans Obongi Otwori, who served as a guard at the deceased’s home, participated in the conspiracy by entering contradictory information in the visitor’s logbook at the deceased’s home.

Court records showed that the car carrying the killers had entered the compound at 8.17pm, and left at 8.15pm. According to the judge, the contradiction in the time of the car’s arrival was suspicious.

“The car could not leave before entering. The accused failed to offer to the court a satisfactory explanation for this inconsistency. The court can only conclude that it was meant to cover up the crime” he noted.

He also argued that that there were too many coincidences in the evidence that had been given by the guard with regard to the events of the night of the crime.

“There are too many coincidences that give credence to a conspiracy between Janet and Evans,” the judge concluded.

A househelp who was one of the prosecution witnesses at the trial had narrated to the court how the deceased’s wife seemed to have a rapport with the killers, a fact that led her to conclude she knew something about the murder.

The witness informed the court that on the night of the crime, the would-be killers tied her up in the bathroom together with some of the deceased’s relatives who were in the house at the time.

In her defence, the accused, who was represented by lawyer John Swaka, had argued that she had a peaceful marriage with the deceased and would have no motive of killing him.