Kenyan woman to die by hanging for killing 8-yr-old stepdaughter

A Kenyan woman who was jilted by her lover and decided to take revenge by killing the man's eight-year-old daughter, has been sentenced to death by hanging by a court in the East African country, The Star reports.

The woman, Elenah Nyambura allegedly stabbed the victim, Sheilah Wanjiku, to death in order to win back her estranged lover, Peter Kamau but that dastard attack ended up with her being sent to the gallow.

According to the report, Nyambura hatched the plan with her brother, Geoffrey Njuguna, who looked for the killer, Kenneth Muriithi while Peris Njeri showed Muriithi where the girl lived. Nyambura also reportedly paid the killer Sh80,000 (about $782), through Njeri. The three accomplices were also sentenced to death by the court.

The doctor who examined the girl's body concluded that the cause of death was severe bleeding from 10 stab wounds on the neck.

While passing the sentence, Justice Fred Ochieng said it does not matter who killed the girl because each of the four played a role which contributed to the success of the heinous act.

“In a nutshell, Elenah conceived the idea to eliminate baby Sheila. She then enlisted the help of her own brother, Geoffrey, whose role was to identify and recruit the killers. Meanwhile, Peris would point out the house to the killers,” Ochieng said.

Ochieng said that in her confession, Nyambura said she felt her husband loved Sheila more than he did her son and was not happy about her husband's marriage to Eunice Nyawira, the girl's mother, and thought that if Sheila was killed, her husband would return to her.

The four committed the offence on August 2, 2009 at the Civil Servants estate in Kariobangi when they visited Nyawira's house and stabbed the house girl and the baby.

They thought they had killed both, but the house help survived and lived to testify in the case.

When the girl's father, Kamau, was cross-examined, he said after Nyambura was arrested, she confessed to him she had been involved in the killing, blaming the devil for persuading her to pay people to kill the girl.