Woman sentenced to 10 years for murdering her child to travel abroad
Judge Anne Ong'injo of the High Court in Mombasa ruled that the prosecution had proved its case against Happy Mwenda Mumba beyond reasonable doubt.
What you need to know:
- In mitigation, Mumba pleaded for leniency, saying she was a first-time offender, remorseful and a mother of two other children.
- During the trial, the court was told that the cause of the child's death was severe traumatic head injury as a result of blunt force trauma to the head.
A woman has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after being found guilty of murdering her one-year-old son by throwing him into a borehole so that she could travel to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Judge Anne Ong'injo of the High Court in Mombasa ruled that the prosecution had proved its case against Happy Mwenda Mumba beyond reasonable doubt.
The judge ruled that the accused should be punished not only to deter other offenders but also to let her know that life is sacred and that her son had a constitutional right to life.
Justice Ong'injo further ruled that the accused must learn that she has no right to take life as she cannot even create a strand of hair.
“This court has considered that the innocent and vulnerable child who depended on the accused died because of the accused person’s selfish interests. She got rid of him so that she could travel to the UAE,” Justice Ong’injo said.
The court noted that the accused was said to have been training with the intention of travelling to the UAE and that the child was the only obstacle and she decided to eliminate him.
In her judgement, the judge ruled that the prosecution's evidence that the accused was responsible for the death of her son was not contradicted by her (the accused's) unsworn statement in court.
Justice Ong'injo said the deceased was one year old and dependent on the accused to protect him from harm as she was a single parent to him.
“The accused person, under the cover of darkness, inflicted injuries on the child with the intention of causing grievous harm and, to ensure that he did not survive, threw him into a ten-foot borehole,” the judge said.
The judge noted that the precision with which the offence was planned and committed was evidence of the degree of malice of the perpetrator.
In mitigation, Mumba pleaded for leniency, saying she was a first-time offender, remorseful and a mother of two other children.
During the trial, the court was told that the cause of the child's death was severe traumatic head injury as a result of blunt force trauma to the head.
The accused committed the offence on July 7 last year in Bombo area of Kisauni subcounty, Mombasa County.
Eight prosecution witnesses had been called to testify against the accused, who the court was told had been selling palm wine before preparing to travel to the UAE.
