Ms. Jane Muthoni, a former school principal of Icaciri Secondary School in Kiambu, has been sentenced to spend 30 years in prison for murdering her husband in 2016.
Ms. Jane Muthoni has been at Lang’ata Women’s Prison since 2016.
Muthoni was facing accusations of hiring killers to murder her husband.
Last year in the month of October, a High Court judge declined to allow an order granting her daughter permission to re-testify in court.
As the judge dismissed the application, Justice Joel Ngugi said that recalling the witness at the defense stage would have likely lead to the witness recanting her evidence hence obstructing justice.
The judge noted that the defense lawyer Francis Njanja did not reveal or explain to the court or the prosecution why he wanted witness PW4 to be recalled.
The deceased Mr. Solomon Mwangi, a former principal of Kiru Boy’s Secondary school was killed on the 6th of November 2016 in Juja, Kiambu County.
The murder plot was revealed to the public and to the court when one of the killers called Joseph Njuguna, also known as Karis, revealed how the murder was carried after he had been paid Sh. 100,000 and was to be paid a full amount of Sh. 300,000 upon completing the deadly mission. This means that he was owed Sh. 200,000.
Njuguna had been charged with manslaughter but was a state witness after he accepted that he had been involved in the murder.
Mr. Njuguna is currently serving a seven-year term in jail at Kamiti maximum prison.
The prosecution team did an investigation and data and phone records from Safaricom revealed that the suspects, Ms. Jane Muthoni, Isaac Ng’ang’a, and another suspect, were at the crime scene. The other suspect has been at large since the incident happened.
Mr. Ng’ang’a admitted knowing Mr. Njiru as a business person and as a friend but denied involvement in hatching the murder plot.
“Mr. Karis introduced me to Karis and our discussion was on how we can expand our miraa business in Murang’a and to some parts of Thika Road. Nowhere did we discuss murdering the deceased,” Mr. Ng’ang’a told the Court.
Ms. Esther Wambui revealed to the court that her sister Muthoni froze the bank accounts of the deceased, immediately he went missing.
Besides, Ms. Wambui told the court that Mwangi had broken teeth when his body was found.
Njuguna, in his confession, admitted that Ms. Muthoni wanted her husband killed because she suspected him of having an affair with an MPESA attendant in Murang’a.
Besides, Njuguna told the court that Mr. Ng’ang’a and Njiru had visited their target in Kiria-ini, Murang’a County and that they had bought a soft drink from her shop.
Mr. Njuguna said that the location was not convenient for killing since there was an Equity Bank that had CCTV nearby.
The court was informed that Ms. Muthoni had hired a vehicle on the 6th of November, 2016, and had told her husband to accompany her to see a commercial plot that they had planned to buy from Urithi Housing Cooperative society in Kiambu.
Ms. Muthoni then allegedly called in the killers and instructed them to meet at Urithi near Ndarugo on Thika Road the following day.
Ms. Jane Muthoni the drugged Mr. Mwangi and later handed him to the killers who used a rope to strangle him.