Benson Kimathi, a former prison warden, was convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison for the murder of Meru Magistrate’s daughter by Chuka High Court judge Lucy Gitari.
In his decision, Justice Gitari stated that all evidence presented in court proved beyond reasonable doubt that Kimathi murdered Maribel Kapolon, 9, in September 2018 after a failed relationship with her mother.
Kimathi was charged alongside Francis Otundo, who is said to have called the girl’s family days after she went missing, demanding a ransom of Ksh.500,000 before her decomposing body was discovered dumped in Meru Gitoro forest.
Justice Gitari conditionally released Otundo for a year after it was discovered that he was only an opportunist who wanted to con the mother but was not involved in the girl’s disappearance and murder.
The learned Judge condemned the act as the most heinous, noting that the girl died in the most agonizing way for a mistake she did not commit, and that the crime deserved such a harsh punishment.
The court heard that the main suspect and the girl’s mother had split up after an affair that did not progress to maturity.
Her daughter had become so close to the suspect before the magistrate and the suspect fell out that he would sometimes pick her up at a petrol station in Meru town where the Consolata Primary School bus used to drop her off in the evening.
The same thing happened on September 6, 2018, but this time the suspect did not take the girl home, causing the family to be upset after they were unable to locate her.
Her classmates said the girl had been chosen by someone she referred to as “Uncle,” and because it wasn’t the first time they’d seen them together, they assumed they were related in some way.
A post-mortem examination of the 9-year-old girl’s body revealed that her assailants hit her on the head several times, causing serious injuries that led to her death.
