Policewoman sentenced to 35 years for shooting husband to death

A police woman has been sentenced to 35 years in jail for killing her husband.

The High Court in Eldoret convicted Constable Lilian Biwott for shooting her husband Victor Kipchumba 12 times, killing him on the spot in the October 14, 2023 incident.

Despite her spirited defense that she was a victim of gender violence and that she shot the husband in self-defense, Justice Nyakundi ruled that Biwott planned and executed the murder of her husband of 10 years and father of their four children.

The judge said Biwott did not give the court any compelling reasons or circumstances that caused her to use her gun and fire so many bullets at her husband, targeting vital parts of his body, leaving him with no chance of survival.

“You knew that if you used your firearm, your husband would die. You used multiple shots to end his life. This shows you had malice aforethought. There is nothing to mitigate for this crime to be reduced to a lesser sentence. The killing was a premeditated act executed with malice aforethought,” the judge ruled.

Justice Nyakundi observed that the accused left her place of work on the material day and went to their house in Kimumu, Moiben in Uasin Gishu County and had adequate time to reflect on her actions.

“The subsequent concealment of evidence paints a clear picture of a premeditated act by the accused,” the judge added.

Justice Nyakundi said the accused, being a law enforcer, had other ways to sort out disputes other than to use the gun.

He regretted that there is an upsurge of domestic violence cases in the country, before noting that family disagreements should not end in death.

Instead, Justice Nyakundi said couples have options of separating or filing for divorce rather than killing their spouses.

“Now your children are orphans because of your unlawful act which could have been avoided,” noted the judge.

Biwott had denied the murder charge when she was arraigned in court 11 months ago. When she was put on her defense, Biwott explained that she lived in an abusive marriage characterised by frequent violence leading to the incident where she shot her husband dead.

In her futile efforts to have her murder case reduced to manslaughter, Biwott had told the judge that she had endured domestic violence in the hands of her estranged husband for several years.

She said that the frequent beatings and threats on her life she was subjected to by her husband had reached to a point she could no longer bear.

Biwott, who was stationed at the Kenya Bureau of Standards office in Eldoret town, said that she received a distress call from her house help who called informing her that her husband had been making calls to unknown persons, vowing to end the lives of his children.

She added that when she got home, her husband, who was armed with a knife, became violent and started assaulting her. leading to the murder.

Investigating Officer Corporal Stephen Nzau had earlier told the court that the police constable and her slain husband had a toxic marriage.

Biwott’s mother Josphine Kipsei testified that her efforts to have her daughter move out of the toxic marriage failed.