My son was depressed when he murdered his grandmother

A father has narrated how his depressed son butchered his grandmother at night when she was sleeping, leaving her in a pool of blood. The father of Abdulaziz Ali Swaleh who is facing charges of killing his grandmother Sharifa Ali Salim, told the court that his son has been suffering from depression and was under medication waiting for further tests at Port Reitz before being admitted at a rehabilitation centre.

Ali Swaleh Said who at some point was in deep thought and lacked words to testify against his son before Mombasa High Court Judge Anne Onginjo told the court that he was not present when the murder incident took place.

He had travelled to receive his stepson who was jetting in the country from Qatar. Abdulaziz Ali Swaleh is facing charges of killing his 80-year-old grandmother, Sharifa Ali Salim in Bondeni area, Mombasa County on January 21, 2023.

At some point, the prosecutor Benard Ngiri asked Ali Swaleh if he needed time before proceeding with his testimony, but he said he can still proceed. He told the court that he was looking for resources to take his son to the rehabilitation centre before the incident occurred.

"I had talked to my stepson to step up and help me take his brother to a rehab centre and one of the reasons my stepson was coming to Mombasa was to help in seeking medication for Abdulaziz. Some medical tests had been done and the doctor had recommended that we take more tests so I did not have any cash for the tests," Ali told the court.

Prior to the tests, Ali told the High Court that his son was still being treated at Malindi District Hospital and the accused had come to her late grandmother's home for treatment and a likely rehabilitation at Port Reitz.

He stated that after his stepson arrived, they were forced to take a plane from Nairobi to Mombasa to attend his mother's burial since he had been informed that his mother had been killed.

A postmortem report presented to the court revealed that the late Sharifa died as a result of hemorrhagic shock - secondary to trauma penetrating cut wound on the neck."Her head had a deep cut wound on the right side of the neck measuring 10 by 2cm. The right carotid artery is cut," stated the postmortem report.

How it happened

On a fateful night, Antonina Bahati recalls how Abdulaziz was crying himself that evening, claiming that he had killed his grandmother.

Antonina, who worked for Sharifa as a house help since 2019 told the court that she prepared supper for the late Sharifa and Abdulaziz. The accused person and three others had supper together and the late Sharifa told her to prepare her room as she wanted to sleep.

Before going to prepare the late Sharifa's room, Antonina told the court that she asked the accused person, Abdulaziz to remove any of the clothes he needed in the late Sharifa's room before she went to sleep to avoid disturbing her (Sharifa) after retiring to bed, and the accused person responded to her that he had already taken the clothes.

She told the court that the late Sharifa, Abdulaziz's grandmother - the mother to the accused person's (Abdulziz) father, used to sleep in one of the rooms, as she slept in the other room. The accused person used to sleep in the sitting room since he came to her grandmother, the late Sharifa in December 2022.

The house help told the court that she began shouting for helpough the window and after, neighbours came knocking on the door. She came out of her room only to find Abdulaziz kneeling down while holding his stomach tightly crying.

"He was shouting, nimemuua Ababa, nimemuua Ababa (I have killed my grandmother! I have killed my grandmother!) while kneeling down in the sitting room," Antonita told the court.