Woman’s one day Jail sentence for killing husband

Woman’s One day Jail sentence for killing husband. Justice Roselyn Aburili described the defendant Truphena Ndong’a Aswani as silenced into accepting beatings from her late husband.

She accepted the beating as her daily routine till one day she almost lost her life.

These are the narration used to describe the defendant after the court found her guilty of killing her husband on 14^th Dec 2020.

The judge considering years of torture Truphena underwent laid the sentence to one day non-custodial sentence. The court further directed that the judiciary to make sure her transport home to Ukwala, Siaya County was sorted.

Justice Aburili ordered the probation officer to arrange counseling sessions for truphena, a mother of one.

In her advice ruling Justice Aburili advised Men and Women in abusive relationships to run for their lives. She said there can never be any love lost while you’re escaping the Jaws of death.

She urged victims of violence to escape and be remembered as being heroes for escaping instead of victims of hyenas.

In Truphena’s Case, she persevered beatings from James Oyengo Obochi to take care of kids left by two wives and her son.

How it happened

The 49-year-old mother narrated how on the fateful day, her husband returned home late and drunk was served with dinner.

After feeding he picked a quarrel with her demanding the title deed to the family land, a document given to her by her father-in-law. Reasoning being his son was irresponsible and a drunk who could sell the land and render his family homeless.

The Court noted that she was trusted by her father-in-law to protect family land from the deceased. Who had already sold off his portion of land bequeathed to him by his late father.

While in the process of arguing he dashed to his bedroom, took a panga but she overpowered him and killed him in self-defence.

Woman’s realization that he was dead and out of fear, she carried the body and dumped it at a neighbor’s farm. The following day the neighbor saw the body and reported to the village elder, she was later interrogated and arrested.

She was arraigned to court on 27^th January where she pleaded guilty but said she dint intend to kill him.

The judge entered a plea of not guilty and asked her to sign a personal bond of Sh500,000 and a surety or cash bail of Sh50,000. She failed to find a person to stand surety for her.

During the next mention date, the prosecution said they had decided to reduce the charge to that of manslaughter. Once again, she pleaded guilty.

In mitigation, she said she was remorseful and prayed for a non-custodial sentence, saying she has a family to take care of.

The abuse

The woman further said she acted in self-defence and willingly surrendered to the police. She said she hid the body out of fear, and that she was a victim of perpetual domestic violence. 

She showed to the court scars from previous beatings. Ms Ndong’a further recalled an incident on November 6 last year when her husband beat her until she passed out. 

A neighbor took her to Luanda Kongango Hospital and during her stay there, her husband appeared to be unconcerned.

He neither visited her nor paid her hospital bills; instead continued threatening to kill her and her son unless she produced gave him the deed to the land which was in her name.

Ms Ndong’a told the court that Obochi had two previous wives who ran away, leaving behind four children. 

She was taking care of all the children. At first, she said the beatings were because she was not able to bear him a child, but they never stopped even after she gave birth to a son.

The sentence

“In the present case, considering the domestic violence that the accused had undergone over the years, occasioned by her deceased husband, the deceased is vividly described as an irresponsible, violent, brutal and torturous human being who did not treat the accused with any dignity or respect at all,” the judge said.

Justice Aburili said the woman was often beaten by a man who never provided for the family but she persevered and neither took revenge nor deserted him for her own safety.  “In my humble view, the threat and fear of death on the accused person was so imminent and so the only way for her to save her life was to immobilize the deceased,” the judge sa