Emily Shivachi at the High Court on Thursday when she was sentenced to serve a ten-year jail term for killing her employer Mrudulaben Kirankumar Shah on September 25, 2009 at Jalaram Apartments in Parklands within Nairobi County.
A house help has been sentenced to ten years in jail for killing her employer in September 2009 at Parklands within Nairobi County.
Justice Nicholas Ombija ruled that the prosecution had proved beyond any reasonable doubt that 31-year-old Emily Khahechia Shirachi killed Mrudulaben Kirankumar Shah by stabbing her with a kitchen knife.
The judge however spared Ms Shirachi the death sentence by commuting the charge from murder to the lesser serious manslaughter, saying the circumstances of the case suggested the accused had no intention of killing her employer.
“The prosecution has established the offence of murder but there was no malice aforethought as she did not intend to kill the deceased after a fight broke out between them. The offence is commuted to manslaughter and after considering her mitigation, I sentence her to ten years in jail,” ruled Ombija.
Justice Ombija said that during the hearing, some witnesses confirmed that the late Ms Shah was abusive and that several house helps had stopped working for her due to repeated assaults on them.
In her defence, Ms Shirachi said it was Ms Shah who assaulted her first by pouring hot water on her face and that she was acting in self-defence.
She said in her mitigation that she was an single mother with an 11-year-old son who went missing soon after her arrest and that no one knows about his whereabouts.
Justice Ombija however rejected her plea for non-custodial sentence, ruling that she was guilty of manslaughter and had to serve the jail sentence.
Her lawyer, Charles Kanyangi, said although he was satisfied with reducing the charge to manslaughter, the 10-year sentence was harsh given that the accused has already spent five years in remand.
Lawyer Charles Kanyangi with his client Emily Shivachi at the High Court on Thursday when she was sentenced to serve a ten-year jail term for killing her employer Mrudulaben Kirankumar Shah on September 25, 2009 at Jalaram Apartments in Parklands in Nairobi County. She was given 14 days to appeal against the sentence.
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