Court upholds sentence for woman in child neglect case
Nanyuki High Court has dismissed an appeal by a woman jailed for three years for neglecting a special-needs child. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- The child was found eating his faeces.
- Her other child had earlier been taken to a children's rescue centre by social workers after similar neglect.
A Nanyuki High Court has upheld a three-year jail-term handed to a woman for neglecting her child suffering from cerebral palsy.
Tabitha Nyaguthie had asked the court to reduce the sentence, saying she had “changed her ways.”
She was handed the sentence in August 2015.
Nyaguthie, a mother of two, pleaded for leniency as her children were suffering and vowed never to repeat the offence.
The court heard that she had left the disabled child in a deplorable condition in a locked house for one week.
The minor was rescued by local social workers with the assistance of police after breaking down the door.
The child was found eating his faeces.
Her other child had earlier been taken to a children's rescue centre by social workers after similar neglect.
“The accused did not do it once, but several times. Even after a Good Samaritan took her youngest child, leaving her with one, she still found it difficult to parent the one child.
“A mother of a [special-needs] child in this day and age is expected to take special care of her child,” Justice Mary Kasango ruled.
Dismissing Nyaguthie’s appeal, Justice Kasango said the three-year sentence was commensurate to the offence.
