Widow sentenced to death for killing husband over property
A woman has been sentenced to death for murdering her husband after row over family property three years ago.
Sheila Wanjiku Kibinge, said to be a university lecturer based in the US and also a Phd Student, was handed the sentence by High Court Judge Lady Justice Jessie Lessit.
“The prosecution led by State Prosecutor Evelyn Onunga has proved beyond reasonable doubt that you purposed to kill your husband although you allege you were both kidnapped the night your husband was executed,” Justice Lessit said.
The judge dismissed her defence that the kidnappers are the ones, who killed her husband.
Justice Lessit said the accused murdered her husband by shooting him in the head, neck and chest.
PREMEDITATED MALICE
“The number of shots fired at the deceased, Leonard Kibinge Kiruri on the night of April 14, 2014 establishes pre-meditated malice aforethought,” Justice Lessit stated.
The Judge said although the mother of two pleaded for leniency there is only one verdict provided for in the law and that is “to suffer death in the manner prescribed in the law.”
Kibinge had denied she murdered her husband at Gitaru village in Kikuyu, Kiambu County.
Justice Lessit pointed out there was no direct evidence linking her to the murder as the weapon used in the crime was never recovered.
But she said circumstantial evidence and inconsistencies in her account of events were her undoing.
KIDNAPPED
Kibinge had claimed that they were kidnapped that night and the kidnappers shot dead her husband.
In her testimony, the woman said she walked away when she heard a blast before their car crashed into a fence.
She said she did not check on her husband, who was driving the car before it crashed, a fact which the judge faulted.
Justice Lessit said she found it interesting that after the incident, the accused bypassed Kikuyu Police Station that was near the scene and went to report the matter at Central Police Station in Nairobi.
Witnesses said the accused had also changed her clothes by the time she reported the matter to the police.
