A woman who turned herself in at Lunga Lunga police station in Nairobi after reportedly stabbing her husband four times and killing him instantly during a domestic fight at their house has denied manslaughter charges.
Tabitha Wanjiru, 40, was charged with manslaughter contrary to section 202 (1) as read with section 205 of the Penal Code where she is accused of unlawfully killing 32-year-old Kennedy Kingeenda on October 31, 2023.
She is accused of committing the offence in the Sinai area of Lungalunga slums in Nairobi.
Wanjiru, 40, turned up at the police station at around 10 pm while drunk and reported that she had stabbed her husband four times while at their rented house.
She was arrested before police officers visited the scene and ascertained her claims.
At the scene, the police officers found stunned neighbours who informed them that they heard a commotion inside the deceased’s house before they heard him cry in pain.
The neighbours reportedly told the cops they found Kingeenda lying unconscious in a pool of blood.
The deceased had a stab wound in the neck and three others in the stomach.
There was blood all over the house when the officers arrived.
The knife used in the killing of Kingeenda was not recovered.
During investigations, Wanjiru told the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) that she has been married to the deceased for the last seven years, they have two children together although she had two children before they married.
She told the sleuths that she and her husband are hawkers, selling insecticides (dawa ya mende) in different parts of Nairobi.
The suspect told the police that she and her husband had taken a local brew (chang’aa) at a joint in the area before leaving for work and went to Burma market along Jogoo Road where they sold the insecticides for some time before proceeding to the Central Business District (CBD) and later to Gikomba market.
They later proceeded to Majengo area where they consumed chang’a again then bought Muguka (Khat) and went home chewing.
After arriving in their neighbourhood, Wanjiru went to a vegetable vendor and ordered for sukuma wiki before they went to a chang’aa den to drink some more.
They later went home drunk and Wanjiru started cooking before an argument started between them.
That is when she allegedly stabbed her husband four times and surrendered to police.
However, she denied the charges before Principal Magistrate Erick Mutunga of the Makadara Law Courts.
The case will be mentioned on December 5, 2023, when the state will avail an advocate to the suspect before the case proceeds.
