Woman who burnt son with newspapers to be sentenced after admitting to cruelty charge
Makadara chief magistrate Heston Nyaga has ordered for a social inquiry report on a distraught mother of two who admitted to subjecting her seven-year-old son to cruelty after she burned him with newspapers.
Beatrice Nyambura pleaded guilty to charges of willfully ill-treating by assaulting and burning the child, an act that caused injury to his health.
She committed the offence in Majengo slums in Kamukunji sub-county, Nairobi on October 5 last year.
She then fled the home to escape police and children’s officers who went to rescue the minor.
Nyambura claimed to have acted out of anger after the son stole from their neighbors twice.
She claimed she had warned her son against stealing a day before only for him to allegedly steal a neighbor’s phone while she was away at work.
She said she lit newspapers and burnt him on the neck as the neighbours cheered her on.
The suspect is also facing an additional charge of child neglect where she is accused of willfully abandoning her one-year-old daughter by the roadside causing her suffering by leaving her unattended by the roadside an act that caused her suffering to her health.
She had allegedly abandoned the child in Kitui village in Kamukunji on October 29 last year but she denied the charge and claimed her estranged husband had snatched the child from her.
The baby was found crying by the roadside by a Good Samaritan at around 9:30pm.
The woman listed as a witness against Nyambura called an elder who authorised her to take her home because it was past curfew.
The Good Samaritan took the child to a nearby police post in the company of the elder the next day, reported the matter to a nearby police post where they were referred to a children’s office.
Nyambura turned up at the children’s office to claim the child and during interrogation she confessed to be the mother of the seven-year-old boy who had been rescued weeks earlier.
She had run away from home when the minor was rescued from her home and taken for treatment before he was placed under safe custody. Both children are at a safe house.
Nyaga also ordered a children’s officers report on the two children to be tabled before him on January 26 together with the pre-sentencing report.