Boda boda sentenced to death for killing concubine

A boda boda operator has been sentenced to death for killing his concubine, dismembering her body and throwing some of her body parts in a pit latrine and others in a river.

Lady Justice Roselyn Korir described the murder “ as most foul, cruel and heinous.”

She said Amos Gachie Mwangi deserved no mercy at all and should “suffer death for his cruel act.”

The judge said Mwangi, 40, and a father of two hit the late Esther Waceke Maina, 31, with a blunt object on the head killing her with one blow at Murera Location in Ruiru District, Kiambu County on May 23, 2012.

He then beheaded her, cut her palms and loaded them together in a paper bag and threw them in a pit latrine in the compound they were living.

He packed the torso in a sack and threw it in River Theta. The sack floated and women drawing water in the river saw the body and reported to the area chief.

“The decomposing body was retrieved and taken to Thika hospital mortuary,” Justice Korir said while sentencing the boda boda operator.

She said police embarked on a search mission to recover the head and other parts.

“Police were told of a stench from the compound of the accused. They demolished the pit latrine and retrieved the head and the palms which had decomposed,” the judge said.

The body of the deceased was identified by her former husband Joseph Wambugu Maina whom they had differed before she walked out of their marriage.

In her judgment, Justice Korir said Esther and Wambugu were in constant communication even when she was living with the suspect.

After differing while residing in Isebania, Wambugu returned to Murang’a and Esther took their two children to Kinamba to live with her parents before moving to Githurai where they met with the accused and begun cohabitating.

On May 18, 2012 they (Esther and Wambugu) agreed to visit their children at Kinamba in Nyahururu Nyandarua County.

While at Kinamba, Amos Gachie Mwangi kept on calling Esther and send her a text message reading: “Uko wapi honey, nimeenda hospitali kifua kinaniuma (where are you honey I have gone to hospital, I have chest pains).”

This message was seen by Wambugu and he called the number which send the message. He introduced himself to the accused as the husband to Esther.

The accused also informed Wambugu that he was “the new husband.”

While at Kinamba Wambugu and Esther buried the hatchet and agreed to reconcile and begin living as husband and wife.

They travelled back to Nairobi then she proceeded to Ruiru to collect her clothes from the accused’s home.

They met in the way and that was her last day to be seen alive.

“The accused confessed to a Thika principal magistrate that he killed and dismembered Esther’s body,” ruled Judge Korir.

She said the case against the accused was proven beyond doubt and went “ahead to hand down a death sentence.”