Child describes mother's murder to Court

Samuel Otieno Nyakwara who was accused of beheading his wife in October 2015. His two children testified against him on Wednesday. [PHOTO: STANLEY ONGWAE/STANDARD].

An eight-year-old boy yesterday narrated to a court how his father beheaded his mother.

So shocking were the details that many in the audience could not hold back their tears. The man has been charged with the murder of his wife on October 10, 2015, at Bonyaiguba in Nyamira South.

The boy testified that his father found his mother cooking. He took a machete and cut her neck.

“My father ordered me to go to sleep, but I pretended that I was asleep and watched everything as it happened,” the boy said.

The boy’s 18-year-old sister had earlier told the court that the man had wanted to have an intimate relationship with her.

“He asked me to sleep with him, but I declined and told my mother. On learning that my mother knew about his advances, he turned even more violent on me and my mother. I took refuge away from home, only for him to kill my mother later,” the girl told the court.

She told Judge Esther Maina that the accused was not her biological father.

“He married my mother in 2013 and we moved in to settle with him as our father from that time,” she said.

According to her, she was informed about the killing by her sister, but her young brother told her how their mother was killed.

Investigating Officer Walter Mencho told the court that it took the police three days to retrieve the woman's body parts from River Charachani. 

He said the boy was the key witness and had led the police to the place where the murder weapon had been hidden.