On the afternoon of December 6, 2018, John Maina Wang’ombe fed his children fruits as usual while they waited for their mother to return and prepare lunch.
Their mother, Agnes Njoki Ndereba, had gone to a nearby school to mark exams for children interviewed for new admissions.
However, little did the children, Angel Wanja and Grace Wambui, know that their days on earth had come to an end because it seemed the “devil” had entered into the heart of their father, who did not want to see them alive again.
After the children finished the fruits, Wang’ombe took a weighing stone and crushed Wanja's head before moving on to Wangui and strangling her. To make matters worse, Wang’ombe then used a knife to inflict more injuries on the already unresponsive minors.
He was subsequently arrested and charged with murder in a Mombasa court. The charge sheet states that he murdered Wanja and Wambui at his residence in Mshomoroni. He denied the charges.
The postmortem report presented in court serves as evidence of the suffering the minors endured as they took their last breaths.
Dr. Ngali Mbuuko examined the body of Wanja and found that her head was deformed by a crushing injury on the right side.
Also, there was a midline cut on the forehead, and the conjunctiva was pale. The medic further discovered that there were also two more bruises below the right eye and that there was a fragmented fracture of the skull.
Dr. Mbuuko was of the opinion that the cause of death was a crushing head injury following traumatic injury to the head.
When the medic examined the body of Wambui, he found small cuts on the anterior of the chest.
“There were bruises on the neck and injuries to the lower chest. The deceased died as a result of strangulation,” he told the court.
Ms Ndereba testified that she left the accused with the children when she went to school. Upon returning at 12.30 pm, she found Wang’ombe seated.
In her testimony, the accused informed her that the children had gone out to play.
"When I went to prepare lunch, I discovered a bucket containing bloody water. The accused explained that he had cut his finger. He showed me a minor injury that he washed in the bucket, causing the water to turn bloody," the woman said.
However, as she prepared to light a cooking gas, she accidentally knocked over a stool that hit the curtain. What she witnessed next left her in shock.
"I found Wanja's body lying behind the curtain in a pool of blood. The body was on a mattress. I was so shocked that I ran out of the house and informed the landlady," she said.
The woman explained that she fled to a neighbour's house with her firstborn daughter. While there, she could hear a crowd gathering at their house.
"My neighbour went to my house and returned with the heartbreaking news that my two children had passed away," the woman testified.
Government Analyst Irene Mwaringa examined exhibits forwarded to the lab and found that the 2kg metal weighing stone generated a partial female DNA profile matching with the blood sample of Wanja.
“The DNA profile of the accused confirmed he was related to the two deceased minors. The stains on the bed sheet, weighing scale, and curtain tested positive for human blood,” she said.
Inspector Billy Onyango, who investigated the case, testified that he found the accused seated on a yellow jerrican beside the door when he arrived at the scene.
“When I asked the accused what was going on, he did not talk. Instead, he started wiping his hands on a curtain separating the bed from the sitting area,” he said.
Mr Onyango said he found a bucket containing bloody water while searching the house. Inside the bucket, there were two knives with brown and green handles, respectively.
He mentioned that they found the two children covered by a bedsheet when they raised the curtain, along with a blue net that had blood stains.
The officer stated that he examined the bodies at the scene and observed that Wanja had a stab wound on the forehead, a cut on the right side of the head above the ear which was bleeding, and bruises on the neck.
“The accused person did not respond when being interrogated at the scene,” he said.
The court heard that Wang’ombe was enraged after his wife attended an interview at the nearby school against his wishes.
It was also alleged that the accused then killed his two children in an attempt to win back his wife, as he opposed her decision to engage in such employment.
The court was informed that the woman had initially planned to stay at home as a housewife and care for their three children. However, when she opted for employment, the accused became violent towards the children.
His defence did little to distance him from the crime, as he only mentioned leaving the house and returning to find the children deceased.
"I was disoriented when I got back from Mangweni, where I had gone to drink mnazi. I sat on a jerrycan until the police arrived and started assaulting me. I am unaware of what had occurred," he said
He also stated that he was fixing a nail to secure the net on the wall with a weighing stone when he accidentally fell and harmed the two children.
Interestingly, the accused left the woman to prepare lunch and even urged her to do so, claiming the children were hungry, despite knowing he had killed them.
Justice Anne Ong’injo convicted Wang’ombe, stating that the evidence indicated he used a weighing stone to crush Wanja's head before strangling Wangui.
“The weapons used, the parts of the body that suffered injuries, and the nature of execution of the injuries makes this court infer that his intentions were to kill or do grievous harm to the deceased and he achieved his intentions,” said the judge.
Justice Ong’injo also ruled that there was direct evidence of murder after finding that Wang’ombe stabbed the deceased on the forehead, inflicting bruises below the right eye of Wanja and three cuts on the chest of Wangui.
“The suspect is found guilty and is convicted of the offense of murder,” said the judge.
The judge ruled that the evidence of the children’s mother and that of the investigating officer outweighed the accused's defence that he did not know what happened when he was found seated inside his house with the dead bodies.
Also, the court noted that the circumstances of the case pointed to the fact that Wang’ombe inflicted fatal injuries on the two minors.
“It is therefore it is the accused person who committed the unlawful act that caused the death of the deceased persons,” the judge said.
