Kiambu High court has directed that a middle aged woman who is being held on suspicion of murdering her 13 year old son to be assigned an advocate prior to the hearing of the case.
Elizabeth Wanjiku Kiarie had been arraigned before court yesterday for allegedly murdering her son Kevin Kiarie Wanjiku at Murengeti area of Bibirioni sub-location of Limuru Sub-county after paying her mother a visit in Githunguri sub-county on 20th January 2021.This was after a report of a missing child was reported and booked vide OB no 33/16/02/2021 at the Githunguri police station.
She was arraigned before the Kiambu deputy Registrar but was not allowed to plead to the offence of murder under section 203 as read with 204 of the penal code as the investigators have not completed mandatory processes conducted on people charged with murder.
The accused had reportedly left her rented house on 14th February while accompanied with her son on the material day with an intention of visiting her mother at Gitaka area in Githunguri sub-county. While on their way back, the duo boarded a motorcycle to Limuru.
Thereafter boarded a motor vehicle to Githunguri and on their way alighted at Murengeti area at a maize plantation where the accused strangled her child and left the body at the scene. She then feigned that the child was lost and an announcement was made at Inooro and Kameme radio stations of a missing child.
Following preliminary investigations, the suspect is said to have confessed that she murdered the child using a pair of white shoes which she used to hit him on the head and a lesso which she used to strangle him.
According to a covering report, she said she was hated by her family as she and her son were suffering from HIV/AIDS which had incapacitated her to a level that she could not fend for her family and that no one was willing to assist her. She therefore intended to kill her son then thereafter stop taking her ARV’s so that she could follow suit.
On 1st March 2021, she was arraigned before the Limuru law courts through a miscellaneous application No.E011/2021 during which the investigating officer was granted 14 days to complete investigations. On the 2nd March, she was escorted to Kiambu Level 5 for psychiatric examination which is mandatory for a suspect facing murder trial.
When she was produced in court yesterday, Kiambu Senior Resident Magistrate Ms. Rita Orora ordered that a lawyer be assigned to her and that her case be mentioned on March 23rd for plea taking.
By Lydia Shiloya
