Why infanticide perpetrators receive ‘lesser’ penalties

By PATRICK KIBET

Kenya: Kenyan criminal laws define infanticide as systematic and deliberate killing of children below 12 months by their biological mothers at birth or after.

While data from the Kenya Police Service hardly establishes the recent incidents of infanticide, the only available information points to 2011, where 45 cases were reported. This was then an increase from 35 reported in 2010.

In some cases, women who are later found to be mentally challenged after medical examinations have reportedly committed infanticide. After committing such crime, some suspects confess.

This was the case of Joyce Cheruiyot from Lalwet Village, Nakuru County recently. Cheruiyot who has since been confirmed to be mentally challenged after psychiatrist examination by hacked her nine-month-old child before confessing.

However, after she was arraigned before the High Court in Nakuru, she was committed to Mathare Mental Hospital where she is receiving treatment. In another incident in Baringo County, a 28 year-old woman dumped her six month-old daughter in a dam.

According to witnesses, Zeddy Rerimoi, who was living with her parents, climbed the fence and threw the child in the dam. When arraigned in court, she was found to be mentally unsound and committed to treatment.

Mentally unsound

In Bomet County, in February, Gladys Chepkurui strangled her eight month-old baby after disagreeing with her mother. When charged in for infanticide, she pleaded guilty. She had strangled the infant and laid her on bed pretending he was asleep before her mother discovered.

Where a woman is found guilty of infanticide, she is liable to a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. However, in practice, majority walk away with a sentence less than life. The law also does not require psychiatric report to be prepared before women who are also facing infanticide are charged in court unlike in murder and manslaughter cases.

Nonetheless, magistrates have often found themselves in difficult situation especially when the perpetrators have been found to be mentally unsound. Another major challenge facing judicial officers is that the laws only allow for a maximum three years’ probation for accused persons thus limiting the years one can be given non-custodial sentences.  Dr James Mwaura, a psychologist, argues that relatives should closely watch mothers who suffer from mental illnesses. He says such measures can stop victims from committing such murders.

“Different conditions force women to commit infanticide. This ranges from depression, hormonal imbalance due to pregnancy, financial problems, lack of social support among other causes,” said Mwaura.