The events of Friday November 30, 2012 have remained painfully etched in Jones Mutethia’s memory.
At the age of 10, he was trapped in the jaws of death. He has never come to terms with the experience that left two of his friends dead and scars of trauma in his young life.
On that day, he accompanied two other boys – Alex Munene and Godfrey Mutuma who were both nine years old – to fetch water in the neighboring village.
At around 9pm after they had had dinner and were about to sleep, some five people went to their homes and reported that they had stolen Sh16,000 from the home of Rahab Kananu, the water vendor.
Their parents argued for some time with Peter Kailemia-Mutuma’s father, volunteering to sell his only cow the following day and pay the money. But no one could hear of it so they reported the matter to Stephen Kinyua-the assistant chief.
Mr Kinyua ordered that the boys should be beaten until they confessed who had stolen the money. Then the madness began. The boys were frog-matched to a bush with stinging nettle plants and beaten senseless.
The flogging that took about two hours left Munene and Mutuma dead, and Mutethia seriously injured. The following day, Mr Kinyua was arrested and charged with the double murder. Also arrested were three other men identified in court papers as Salesio, Mwika and Gaturuku.
Mr Kinyua was charged that on the material date at Kabari village, Mbaranga location in Tigania East, he jointly with others before court killed Munene and Mutuma.
After a protracted court case that saw the matter dropped at one point allegedly due to lack of evidence, justice was finally served when Meru High Court Judge Justice Thripsisa Cherere convicted Mr Kinyua on March 30,2023 and on Thursday last week jailed him for 10 years.
Justice Cherere ruled that Mr Kinyua was guilty of the murders and sentenced him to jail, disregarding a probation report which had recommended he should serve a non-custodial sentence.
“The accused is a first offender but he had an obligation not only to maintain law and order but also to protect the boys against harm. He played a primary role in handing over the boys to the killers and he cannot escape punishment,” she ruled.
The sentence marked 10 years in pursuit of justice for the boys’ family with Mr Kailemia saying although he expected a stiffer sentence, justice had been done.
“My son was killed in a ruthless and brutal manner and I opposed a non-custodial sentence which would have been a slap on the wrist,” he said in an interview.
“The report for Munene revealed protruding eyes with extensive hemorrhage on both eyes. There was bleeding through the nasal cavity and bleeding on the left side of the brain. An opinion was formed that the cause of death was cardiopulmonary arrest due to head injury caused by a heavy object,” Dr Wachira said.
In her judgment, Justice Cherere noted that as the assailants beat the boys, the parents were not allowed to intervene and were also denied the opportunity to repay the money the boys had allegedly stolen.
The judge described the injuries suffered by the boys as “heart-wrenching” and that it was hard to imagine the amount of pain and degradation the children went through at the hands of an administrator who would have been expected to protect them.
“By the time the assault stopped, the boys lay semiconsciously in a heap on the ground, immobile...the grief, anguish and distress that the parents went through when the boys wailed and screamed for help and upon losing them is unimaginable,” Justice Cherere said.
She continued: “From the foregoing, I find that the attack shows the maliciousness and heartlessness by the accused. The boys did not have to die as painfully as they did. That there was an intention to kill is explained by the breaking of their neck bones among other serious injuries. I therefore find the accused guilty of the two counts of murder and convict him accordingly,” she ruled.
Mr Kailemia recalled that they nearly lost the battle in 2017 when the case was thrown out allegedly for lack of evidence.
He said it took the efforts of officers at the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Mr Edwin Mulochi who is now a magistrate and Mr Baylon Mutahi who ensured that the case was reinstated.
“My son did not deserve to die. I was ready to pay the money but nobody listened to my pleas. Surprisingly the following day the money was discovered hidden under a mattress. Apparently, after finding it placed on the table, Ms Kananu’s house help kept it safely,” he said.
In mitigation, Mr Kinyua through lawyer Ken Muriuki had pleaded for leniency saying while the accused had not absconded court since the case began, he was also a family man.
Mr Jackson Kinyua, the probation officer, said in a report that the family of the deceased had no problem with a non-custodial sentence.
“It is my view that a probation sentence be given to the subject and our office will see to it that he goes back to his civil service career. Our office will ensure he is guided, settled, counseled and rehabilitated back to the community,” the officer wrote.
But Mr Kailemia disowned the report which the prosecutor Ms Rita Rotich read in court, saying when the officer interviewed him he insisted the accused should be put behind bars.
Justice Cherere ruled that as an assistant chief, Mr Kinyua had the responsibility of protecting the boys.
“I have considered the probation report and heard from the parents of the deceased and found that justice cannot be said to be done if the accused is not punished for his action thus a non-custodial sentence is not merited. In the circumstances and the role in the murders I sentence him to serve 10 years in jail,” she ruled, adding that the accused had a right to appeal.
