A 26-year-old mother who pleaded guilty to stabbing to death her two-year-old son and critically injuring her six-year-old daughter due to a domestic feud with her estranged husband has been sentenced to life by an Eldoret court.
Christabel Jepkosgei who first appeared in court on May 24, 2023, pleaded guilty to the murder charge but the court deferred her sentencing to give her time to ponder about the consequences of the charge that she pleaded guilty to.
Before her sentencing, the court called her six-year-old daughter who survived after the wrath of her mother to testify in the murder case.
The girl who recovered after she was admitted to the intensive care unit at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) for two months broke into tears as she saw her mother who wanted to kill her.
The tearful girl made the court prosecutor sob in tears as she listened to her.
After her evidence, the court read the facts of the charge to the accused who maintained her initial plea of guilty.
The accused who was interviewed by probation officers admitted that she took a kitchen knife and slaughtered the deceased due to anger following what she termed as an abusive marriage and irresponsible husband.
The probation report which was tabled in court further revealed that, after slaughtering the two-year-old boy before his sister, she proceeded and started stabbing her, the girl screamed and rushed to the daughter before being rescued by a neighbour.
She was rushed to hospital in critical condition.
“After slaughtering my two-year-old son, I advanced to his sister whom I stabbed several times but she managed to walk out towards the door where our neighbor rescued her and rushed her to MTRH,” the accused woman told probation officers during a pre-sentencing interview with probation officers.
The woman attempted to commit suicide after the incident but was also rescued by the neighbor.
The court heard that on May 22, 2023, the accused murdered Jibril Mansoor Misimo at the West Indies estate in Eldoret town.
She underwent a mental assessment at MTRH where it was confirmed that she was fit to stand trial.
A postmortem report and a kitchen knife that was used during the incident were presented in court as exhibits.
State counsel Sidi Kerenge told the court to prefer a harsh sentence on the accused to serve as a lesson to other women who might think of subjecting children to such painful conditions due to marriage challenges.
“I implore this court to subject the accused to a severe sentence to act as a lesson to other people with similar behavior, the innocent children were subject to harsh suffering due to issues that were none of their business,” Ms Kerenge told the court.
While delivering the sentence, Principal Magistrate Mogire Onkoba told the accused what she did was very regrettable and painful to innocent children.
The magistrate told her that even if she had issues with the husband especially matters of children’s upkeep as she alleged she would have reported the case to the children’s court for her husband to be compelled to for upkeep.
“Your act was so inhumane no matter the reason you had, this court has sentenced you to serve a life sentence in prison,” ruled the Magistrate.
She has 14 days to appeal.
