Woman who poisoned son, killing him, jailed for 15 years
Halima Bwakali who was on March 26, 2019 sentenced to 15 years in jail for killing her son, 12, after she made him swallow a drink laced with poison. She is already serving seven years for attempted suicide. PHOTO | COURTESY
What you need to know:
- Halima Bwakali from Khwisero Sub-County was found guilty of committing the offence on December 23, 2018.
- Bwakali is currently serving a seven-year sentence for attempted suicide.
- The judge said he had taken into consideration the fact that the accused was troubled due to frustrations.
A woman who poisoned and killed her 12-year-old son has been jailed for 15 years by a Kakamega court.
The woman is said to have given the boy a drink which was laced with a pesticide.
He collapsed and died after swallowing it.
Kakamega High Court Judge Jesse Njagi sentenced Halima Bwakali from Khwisero Sub-County after he found her guilty of committing the offence on December 23, 2018.
ANOTHER SENTENCE
Bwakali is currently serving a seven-year sentence after she was convicted by a magistrate in a separate trial for attempting to take her own life and poisoning her six-year-old daughter.
The court was told that Bwakali had attempted to commit suicide by swallowing the pesticide after she had forced her two children to drink the poisonous concoction.
The woman and daughter survived after they were rushed to hospital for treatment but her son did not make it.
The judge said the offence committed by the accused was serious and deserved a deterrent sentence.
TROUBLED
“The maximum sentence for murder is death. I, however, do not think that the death sentence is warranted in this case,” said Justice Njagi.
The judge said he had taken into consideration the fact that the accused was troubled due to frustrations and emotional stress she was going through after being ejected from her home by family members.
“I therefore consider a prison sentence to be appropriate in the circumstances of the case and sentence the accused to serve 15 years in prison,” ruled the judge.
The pre-sentencing report indicated that Bwakali had decided to end her own life and that of her children after she was ejected from her home by her step-brothers following a quarrel.
FRUSTRATIONS
Beset by frustration and anger, she bought the pesticide and decided to end her life and the lives of her children.
The prosecution told the court that the woman laced a drink with the pesticide and gave it to the children drink before she drunk it herself.
Her son collapsed and died at the home of a neighbour where he had gone to join other children to play.
A lawyer representing Bwakali asked the court to be lenient to the offender.
Lawyer Allan Otsieno asked the court to consider the seven-year sentence the accused is serving after she was found guilty of attempting to commit suicide and poisoning her daughter.
