The High Court in Eldoret has sentenced a woman to three years in prison for manslaughter after she fatally stabbed her boyfriend during a late-night quarrel.
Justice John Anuro delivered the ruling, convicting Anne Nyaboke, 33, on her own plea of guilty following a plea bargain agreement.
However, the court rejected a prosecution recommendation for a non-custodial sentence.
The court heard that the mother of four, then aged about 27, stabbed her 28-year-old boyfriend.
“The deceased Rensal Opiyo and the accused were boyfriend and girlfriend. They wereliving together in the accused’s rented house at Joyland, Baringo area.
“On December 23, 2020, the accused person arrived home at around 10 pm and found the deceased who picked a quarrel with the accused for coming home late,” the court heard.
“The quarrel escalated into a fight and the accused went into the kitchen and took a knife andstabbed the deceased on the left side of the chest. The accused then raised an alarm that attracted neighbours who responded and found the deceased lying on the ground in a pool of blood.”
Opiyo was taken to hospital but pronounced dead on arrival. The hospital reported the matter to the police, who arrested the accused and found the murder weapon at her house.
A postmortem examination conducted at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital found that he died from severe blood loss caused by a stab wound to the chest.
The accused was charged with murder.
The defence counsel urged the court to impose a non-custodial sentence, submitting that Nyaboke had acted impulsively rather than with premeditation.
“He submitted further that after the deceased sustained the stab wound, it is the accused who called for help and assisted in taking the deceased to hospital, that she was in fact arrested at the hospital and that the stab wound was only one.
“He also stated that the accused is a mother of four, aged 13, 11, 10 years and two-and-a-half years, that she is a single mother who is making ends meet by washing clothes for customers and carrying out other casual work and that she also lives with her ailing mother who suffers from a spinal core injury and is bedridden.”
Counsel added that the accused "has been remorseful from day one”, and is in talking terms with Opiyo's family—who have forgiven her—and that reconciliation between the families has taken place.
The prosecution agreed that the pre-sentence report spoke highly of the accused and that she was evidently remorseful, but said that a life had been lost.
The deceased's brother, Emmanuel Wemali, opposed the non-custodial sentence proposal.
Justice Anuro acknowledged the mitigating factors,
including Nyaboke's age, her status as a first offender, her plea of guilty and
the pre-sentence report's finding.
However, the judge said that the postmortem report painted "a grim picture of a vicious attack" and that Nyaboke had "resorted to a degree of violence that was excessive, disproportionate and unnecessary".
Rejecting the non-custodial sentence, the judge said: "Through a needless and rash action by the accused to engage in an unnecessary fight, a human life was lost and the court must reiterate that it is not acceptable to do anything that may take a human life extra-judicially, even if unintended, whatever the circumstances or level of provocation.
"Even if the accused faced an imminent threat to her life, the opportunity to retreat and de-escalate the situation remained available to her. By choosing confrontation over flight, she exercised a fatal error in judgment."
In calculating the sentence, the court directed that the period between Nyaboke's arrest and her release on bond on April 23, 2021 be deemed as time already served. She has a right of appeal within 14 days.
