A 37-year-old woman will spend 20 years behind bars after the High Court found her guilty of shooting dead her Asian lover four years ago in a drunken stupor inside their bedroom.
Ms Hellen Wambui who appeared before Narok High Court Judge Justice Justus Bwonong’a was found guilty of murdering her boyfriend Roy Ibrahim at Nkorinkori area in Narok South Sub County on January 20, 2015.
Delivering the Judgement Justice Justus Bwonong’a said the prosecution had proved beyond reasonable doubt that Wambui murdered her boyfriend.
Justice Bwonong’a said the verdict was arrived at after the probation team report indicated that Ms Wambui had two children aged 15 and 6, and she is the sole bread winner for the children.
“The court will not sentence you to a life imprisonment, after the probation report indicated that you are a mother of two, you are also suffering from ulcers, and residents described you as a warm and good person,” said the Judge.
Those who attended the court were mesmerized by the lenient sentence as murder is among the five main crimes in Kenya that warrant capital punishment alongside, treason, oath-taking for crimes by proscribed criminal outfits, robbery with violence and attempted robbery with violence.
Murder and robbery with violence were the offences in the Kenyan criminal law that attract a death penalty but in 2017 the Supreme Court declared Section 204 of the Penal Code, which stipulates mandatory death sentence, as unconstitutional.
In her defence, Ms Wambui had told Justice Bwonong’a that her boyfriend had shot himself after a domestic dispute.