It is 30 years in jail for Jane Muthoni, former Icaciri Secondary School Principal for murdering her husband Solomon Mwangi in 2016, Nakuru High Court has ruled.
Mwangi was the principal of Kiru Boys’ High School.
On Thursday, Justice Joel Ngugi sentence Muthoni together with her co-accused Isaac Ng’ang’a Njoroge.
Justice Ngugi said that the sentence took into consideration that she was a first-time offender and was the provider for her family.
However, he added that evidence showed she planned the murder which made it a premeditated act. Muthoni according to the court had all intent to commit the crime.
“Both accused persons had opportunities to walk back but they chose the path of death, I have come to the conclusion that custodial sentence of 30 years imprisonment of the two,” the judge pronounced.
Muthoni and Njoroge were to be sentenced on May 18 after being found guilty in April. However, her daughter June Mbuthi pleaded with the court for leniency.
This forced the judge to push the sentencing date to June 3.
In a virtual court session on May 18, June pleaded for leniency saying her mother’s incarceration has damaged her family.
June and her siblings are all alone with no one to take care of them.
She told the court that though what happened was not right, they now need their mother.
“We all want justice for my father. He was my best friend but the absence of my parents has been so hard for my siblings and I for the past 5 years. We request the court to have mercy on my mum,” she pleaded.
“I know it can’t be undone but we don’t have anyone we can fully rely on. All that time, we have been depending on third parties like relatives and friends.”
According to witness testimonies and investigations by the police, Muthoni murdered her husband in cold blood over a young woman working as an M-Pesa attendant.
She hired Ng’ang’a and Nelson Njiru to carry out the heinous murder and later dumped the body at a coffee farm in Kiambu.
Muthoni contracted hitmen and paid Ksh50,000 for Mwangi to be killed. Justice Ngugi noted that “evidence demonstrated that she was the author of the plot”.
Ng’ang’a and Njiru were the hitmen who executed the job and dumped his body at Karakuta Coffee Estate in Juja on November 6, 2016.
There were 18 text message that proved Muthoni ordered her husband’s murder and 21 witnesses who incriminated her.
