A murder suspect will spend the next 4 decades in prison after he was found guilty of killing his mother.
In his ruling, High Court judge William Musyoka said the prosecution had proven its case against Simon Musambai Naman “beyond a shadow of doubt”.
He observed that a psycho-social report, filed by probation officers, painted the suspect as a violent man, who had poor ties with his family and community thus unsuitable for a non-custodial sentence.
The Court was told that Musambai attacked Helen Mboka Naman with an axe on November 1, 2012, at Emariku village in Khwisero, Kakamega.
A neighbour who witnessed the cold-blooded murder testified that she was standing a few metres away from Ms Mboka at around 8 am when the attack happened.
“The accused came out of nowhere and without uttering a word went to the place where his mother was milking a cow and struck her on the head once,” said Luciana Nziwa.
The neighbour said she ran out of the compound screaming, with Musambai hot on her heels. Luckily, she was able to escape from the bloodthirsty killer.
Nziwa was rescued by other neighbours who responded to her distress calls. They would later find Ms Mboya’s body lying in a pool of blood.
Musambai, realising the neighbours were baying for his blood, surrendered himself to officers at Khwisero Police Station.
His brother, Peter Mudogo, told the court that the attack was as a result of a long-standing dispute after their mother declined several requests by Musambai to cut trees planted by their late father.
In mitigation, the accused submitted that he has been in custody since 2012 and had learnt his lesson.
Musambai urged the court to grant him a non-custodial sentence because his masonry skills would be wasted in prison.
He was granted 14 days to lodge an appeal.
