Nairobi woman ‘hired hitmen to kill husband’
A mother of three hired hitmen to kill her husband of 21 years in a dispute over land.
Ms Winrose Njeri Kamau asked the killers to hide under their matrimonial bed and lie in wait for Muriuki Gicheru Njari and attacked him with machetes, a court heard on Thursday.
The killers then dragged his body to the bathroom.
Ms Kamau and one of the alleged hitmen, Mr Francis Ng’ang’a Mugune are charged with the murder of Mr Njari at Gituamba Village in Ruai, Nairobi County four years ago.
The two have denied the offence.
The court heard that Ms Kamau, 38, had quarrelled with her husband over a quarter-acre farm worth Sh500,000.
BLOOD IN COMPOUND
The wife wanted them to sell the land and share the proceeds but the husband refused, State Counsel Charles Okeyo revealed.
Mr Okeyo told Judge Roselyn Korir that after the murder, the wife cleaned the house to conceal evidence.
However, the blood had not dried up when officers from the Ruai police post arrived at the scene on April 28, 2011.
After interrogation, Ms Njeri gave a contradictory statement and even disclosed the names of the hitmen to detectives.
And during the court proceedings on Thursday, salacious details of the couple’s troubled marriage emerged.
They had built a four bedroom bungalow “but never lived in it since both were working day and night”.
Ms Kamau, who operated a bar, mostly returned home at 6.30am while Mr Njari, a lorry driver, used to leave home in the morning when his wife was just arriving.
KDF SOLDIER
Their three children were in boarding school.
The court heard that Ms Kamau eloped with a Kenya Defence Forces soldier. The army man testified in court that he had married her and they were living together at Chokaa village in Ruai.
“Is it true you had abandoned your first husband and had a second husband? That you were living with a Mr Lawrence Mutinda Ukala, who admitted to having married you?” Mr Okeyo asked the suspect.
She denied knowing the soldier.
“Was the KDF man your husband?” defence lawyer Wamuyu Omung’ala asked Ms Kamau.
“No he was not. I saw him here the first time he testified.”
The relationship between the two also triggered questions from the judge.
“Were you living with your husband in the same house?” Justice Korir asked her.
“We were actually meeting during the day due to the conflicting working times,” she replied.
The accused insisted that they had not separated as alleged by the prosecution. She also denied having any affairs or differing with the husband over the sale of land.
“So, when your husband met his death, there was nobody else in the home except the two of you? asked the judge.
“Yes. It was only the two of us,” she replied.
The accused told the judge she had no differences with her late husband.
The accused’s lawyer, Ms Omung’ala and the prosecutor, Mr Okeyo will make their final submissions on February 3, when Justice Korir will set a judgment day.