This archive report was first published on 19 July 2019.
On July 18, 2019, Australian court handed down a 10-month prison term to Esther Arunga, a former KTN TV anchor, for her role in the murder of her three-year-old son in 2014.
However, Justice Martin Burns immediately freed her on parole, leaving many to question the severity of the sentence.
Ms Arunga had pleaded guilty to being an accessory to murder after the fact to manslaughter, admitting to lying to the police in a bid to help her husband, Quincy Timberlake, avoid punishment.
But for Rosemeg Wambitta, Quincy's mother, the sentence was a bitter pill to swallow.
Speaking at her home in Mbeme, Kisumu County, Ms Wambitta expressed her disappointment at the light sentence, saying she was still hurting because she had no update about her son and that no one was talking about him.
"I have neither spoken nor heard from my son for many years. I don't know if he is okay and how he is coping with the situation," Ms Wambitta said.
Ms Arunga's cultural beliefs were cited as a factor in her sentence, with Justice Burns stating that she had suffered a great deal during the five years since her son's death.
"You must be taken to have been in shock at the death of your son, at the times when you were interviewed... and further to be grieving at your loss," he said.
