The prosecution of a then headmistress, who allegedly hired assassins in November 2016 to kill her spouse, commenced on Monday at the Kiambu High Court.
The former Icaciri Secondary School in Kiambu headmistress Ms Jane Muthoni was accused of scheming the murder of her husband Mr Solomon Mwangi, a late principal of Kiru Boys Secondary School in Murang’a county.
Ms Muthoni appeared before the court alongside her co-accused Mr Issac Nganga on Monday.
Murder conspiracy
Mrs Muthoni claimed that on Nov 6th, she was called by abductors via phone and reported the matter to the police. The abductors later off their phones after realising that the police were trailing them.
The widow, however, failed to tell the court the amount of ransom the abductors were demanding.
Muthoni denied claims by the court that her husband was murdered on 6th of November 2016, or on 9th of November 2016, given that they talked on the said dates. She also denied her participation in the murder conspiracy.
The accuser opposed their cash bail petitions claiming that if freed, they will meddle with witnesses. Muthoni is currently being detained at Lang’ata Women's Prison while her co-accused is being held at Industrial Area Remand Prison.
Joseph Njuguna, a convict-turned-state witness who spew the beans on the murder plot narrated to the police in his confession how he was contacted by a woman identified as Damaris, with a 'well-paying job offer.'
Damaris had been contracted by the widow Ms Muthoni – now the suspect – to hire gunmen.
Love Affair
Ms Muthoni alleged that her late husband was had an unlawful affair with another woman, an M-Pesa shop attendant.
Mr Joseph Njuguna, currently serving his five-year jail term at Kamiti Maximum Prisons for manslaughter, had narrated to investigators and the court the that the primary murder scheme was to kill a female M-Pesa shop attendant in Kiria-ini.
Mr Njuguna identified the mastermind of the plot as a man by the name ‘Njiru’. The female M-Pesa shop attendant, he said was to be murdered for having an affair with her husband. Mr Njuguna was to be paid Sh100.000 executing the job.
The plot murder plot failed when the killers toured their supposed target in Murang’a and cosmetically ordered for a soft drink then went away due to the risks involved. The M-Pesa shop was next to a police station and an Equity Bank.
The next scheme idea, Mr Njuguna confessed was to assassinate the principal of Kiru Boys Secondary School. The principal was then drugged by his wife Muthoni who successfully handed him over to his executioners who strangled him in the forest using a rope.
Mwangi’s body was later retrieved in Juja from a coffee farm following a search led by Muthoni, his wife who failed to pay the hired criminals a balance of Ksh300,000 leading to the leakage of the scheme.
The case will be heard again on Wednesday.
