Former Principal sentenced to 30 years in prison for killing husband

The High Court has sentenced former Icaciri Girls Secondary School Principal, Jane Muthoni and co-accused Isaac Ng’ang’a, alias Gikuyuto 30 years in prison for murder.

Appearing before Justice Joel Ngugi today, they were both found guilty of killing Kiru Boys principal Solomon Mbuthi.

Ngugi, in his ruling, described Muthoni as a vengeful wife who planned and financed her husband’s murder.

On April this year, Muthoni was convicted of murdering her husband by hiring three men to kill him and hang him from a tree.

Being sure he was unfaithful with a girl in an M-Pesa shop, Muthoni decided her husband had to die and she hired three men to help her after her plan to drug him failed.

Nakuru High Court judge Joel Ngugi found Muthoni guilty of murdering her husband between November 6 and 11, 2016.

Judge Ngugi said in June 2016, Muthoni hatched “a brutal, chilling and cold-blooded” plan that took at least six months to execute as there were several failures.

Mwangi was reported missing on November 6, 2016. His mutilated body was found eight days later, dumped at Karakuta Coffee Estate in Juja subcounty, Kiambu.

Muthoni was charged together with Gikuyu, Nelson Njiru who is still on the run and Joseph Njuguna Kariuki who confessed to the murder.

Kairiuki, who gave a blow-by-blow account of Mwangi’s murder, said Sh100,000 cash was meant as down payment for the murder. The Sh300,000 balance to be paid later.

He said in June 2015 he received a call from a woman identified as Damaris, a long-time acquaintance who said there was a well-paying job for him.

He met a day later at Tree Shade Hotel in Kimbo with a man called Njiru and Damaris. They said the headteacher’s wife, identified as Mwalimu, was behind the planned execution and had already paid Sh100,000.

Their mission was to kill an M-Pesa attendant at a shop in Kirin-ini, the presumed lover though the mission failed since the girl’s shop was near Kiria-ini police station and a bank, both well guarded.

Two days later at the Tree Shade Hotel, they told Mwalimu they couldn’t get away with killing the girl, so she gave Njiru Sh100,000 to share.

Muthoni had another plan – murder her husband.

“On November 4, 2016, I met with another man known as Gikuyu at Texas Bar in Kiria-ini. We were joined by Njiru and Mwalimu who informed us that she had a new plan of poisoning her husband,” Kariuki said.

She told them to meet her the next day at Urithi near Ndarugo, he said.

Muthoni would spike his drink at the teacher’s quarters at the boys’ school. After the drug took effect, Kariuki and Gikuyu would enter and strangle him to death.

Muthoni drove to the school compound, the killers hidden behind tinted windows. She chatted with her husband and they went to his residence.

After some time, Mwalimu returned with bad news. She had failed, the drugged water turned “dirty” and when she spiked his tea, the drug didn’t work.

The court was told that on November 6, a Sunday, Muthoni called the killers with instructions to meet at Urithi, near Ndarugo in Kiambu.

She had picked her husband the night before from school and they spent the night at her house in Kiambu.

They were to see a plot for sale and meet the sellers.

That night Muthoni succeeded in drugging her husband and the following day she drove the weakened man to his killers.

Muthoni drove Njuguna, Gikuyu and Mwangi, who was in the front passenger seat, to a forest.

Gikuyu took a sisal rope from under the seat and, from behind, suddenly put it round Mwangi’s neck and they jointly dragged him from the car.

The court was told that Gikuyu wrapped the body in gunny bags and removed his gumboots, hid them in the bush and put on Mwangi’s sports shoes.

Mwangi’s body was found eight days later in a coffee plantation. The government chemist said Xylazie, a drug used to sedate animals, was found in Mwangi’s liver, kidney and stomach.