Court acquits a woman convicted of murdering her husband on the night of July 7, 2022 claiming the woman acted in self-defense during a domestic violence after the husband returned home drunk.
Wanjiru was arrested and charged with the murder of her husband Lukhumbali before Nyandarua High Court.
She pleaded not guilty and opted to enter into plea bargaining agreement with the prosecution.
Facts of the alleged murder was that on the night of July 7, 2022 Wanjiru was at home in Iriani village of Nyandarua West, when her husband Peter Lukhumbali alias Stephen Sande arrived drunk.
After getting into the house, the husband and wife talked and then proceede to the kitchen for dinner.
While eating, Lukhumbali suddenly kicked the sufuria and when the wife questioned his action, he stood and started beating her.
A fight broke out between the two and Wanjiru would find herself squeezed to the ground.
She screamed for help but nobody came to her rescue. She continued struggling to get out of her husband's hold.
Soon, she managed to free herself but while running out of the kitchen, he got hold of her clothing and pulled her back.
Thinking of defending herself, she reached out for a knife and stabbed Lukhumbali once in the stomach then ran out.
She would not know the extent of the injuries until the next day at 8am, when the man was found dead.
A postmortem showed that the cause of the death was massive loss of blood following a stab wound.
She was later charged with the offense of murder.
In mitigation, the defense said the widow was trying to rescue herself from an aggressor, who started a fight without provocation despite the good reception of his wife with food.
The court heard that she had a child and had been in custody for over one and a half years.
Upon determination of the matter, the court noted that Wanjiru was only trying to save her life and had no option but to all means to preserve her life.
It pointed out that the deceased could have harassed her or even killed her.