A former Moi Girls High School student who was found guilty of killing ten students in the 2017 dormitory fire incident was yesterday handed a five-year jail term.
Justice Stella Mutuku, who delivered the sentence virtually from Kajiado High Court, sentenced the student to serve five years for each of the manslaughter charges she was found guilty of.
While passing the sentence, Justice Mutuku noted that she took into consideration the impact statement of the parents of the victims and the probation officers report, the girl’s mitigation and the sentence policies guidelines.
“I will not impose a non-custodial sentence to the accused because the offence of manslaughter is a serious one that needs one to serve a jail term,” said Mutuku.
She will however serve for only five years as they will run concurrently.
She also said that no amount of punishment granted to the former student could bring back the lives of the ten students.
When she committed the offence, the student was underage (14 years old) and was found guilty on December 21, 2021, when she was already an adult.
However, the parents of the victims termed the sentencing a lenient one.
Speaking to the press, they termed the sentence imposed by Justice Mutuku as too lenient.
“I thought it was going to be a stiffer sentence,” said Maryanne Mwangi, a mother who lost her daughter in the 2017 incident.
“We believed and trusted that the judge would hand the student whom they described as a killer, a heavier penalty including a life jail term,” said another parent.
Another parent said that since losing her child together with her family, they have been living with bad memories and prayed no child or student commits such kind of crime in a school again.
Mutuku noted that in her mitigation the student had regretted her actions that led to the loss of lives and she was remorseful.
The judge also observed that the convict did not start the fire with the intention of killing her schoolmates but did so in a desperate attempt to get transferred from the school.
