Mechanic who pushed grandmother to death over porridge flour jailed

A 22-year-old Mechanic from Rarieda Sub-County in Siaya has been granted a jail term of ten years after he unequivocally pleaded guilty to causing the death of his grandmother aged 82.

This was after the grandmother told him that there was nothing to eat in the house since his father never provided her with any.

Maxton Omondi Otieno, now a convict, had been charged with the offence of Manslaughter, an offence which he admitted to having unintentionally killed Jael Akuru Orundu at her house at about 6:30 pm on February 8, 2021.

It was Last year December when the convict was introduced to his father’s parents and relatives. He started living with his grandmother Akuru and that on a fateful day the convict returned home that evening

He asked the grandmother for food but she had none. He further asked her for flour of porridge but the grandmother told him that his father had not been providing her with foodstuff. In a rage, he pulled her from her bed where she was taking a rest and unfortunately fell to the ground.

The grandmother struggled to defend her with a walking stick by trying to hit him but he overpowered her. She fell to the ground, became unconscious and the accused ran away to his cousin’s house where he slept.

The following morning, the deceased was found lying in a pool of blood dead leading to his arrest. An autopsy carried out on her revealed the cause of her death to be severe internal bleeding

In his mitigation, he pleaded for leniency and regretted the offence saying he did not intend to take his grandmother’s life.

In a judgement delivered on March 31, by Siaya High Court judge R.E. Aburili, he stated that “ I have considered the facts and mitigation. The Probation Officer filed a Prebail assessment report indicating that the convict who lost his mother at the age of three was living with the maternal relatives and that his father had been absent from his life emotionally and physically and so his introverted personality.

 Further, at the time of the incident, he was on industrial attachment as a mechanic. His paternal family are bitter with him and are ready to revenge by eliminating him should they see him in their midst. He is not fit for non-custodial sentences.

“I exercise discretion and sentence the accused person to a prison term of ten (10) years imprisonment and should learn life’s skills and be rehabilitated to adapt to live with other people in the society.” Reads the sentence in part