This archive report was first published on 4 July 2019.
On July 4, 2019, Justice Abigail Mshila of the High Court in Nyeri handed down a 30-year sentence to Ms Benedict Njoki Gachinga, 33, for the murder of her foster mother, Esther Wangari Kanuri, 64.
Ms Gachinga was found guilty of stabbing her foster mother 42 times with a knife at their home in Kihuyo village, Nyeri, on February 23, 2014.
According to the court, Ms Gachinga had been harboring a grudge against her foster mother since discovering she was adopted at the age of 14. She had even sent a text message to her pastor two days before the murder, stating that she was angry and would kill someone.
Ms Gachinga's lawyer, Njuguna Kimani, had pleaded with the court to pardon her from the death sentence, citing that she was pregnant and HIV positive. However, Justice Mshila found that there was no evidence to support the claim of a rosy relationship between the deceased and the adopted daughter.
Ms Gachinga's defense team had expected a life or death sentence, but ultimately accepted the 30-year sentence as fair.
