The offence was committed at Kiharo village in Nyandarua West district in the evening of July 4/PETER MWANGI
NYAHURURU, Kenya, Jul 9 – A middle aged man has been sentenced to seven years in jail after he was found guilty of burning his own house by a Nyahururu court.
Moses Njogu Mututho was convicted by Nyahururu Magistrate Vincent Kiptoon on his own plea of guilty to an arson charge, which indicated that he torched his own house in a fit of anger.
The offence was committed at Kiharo village in Nyandarua West district in the evening of July 4.
The prosecution led by Chief Inspector James Koech said Mututho picked a quarrel with his wife after he went home to find she had not lit a fire for his mother at her nearby house.
He then went to his mother’s house barely 50 meters away from his house and lit the fire before coming returning to his home, dousing his house with kerosene and setting it alight.
The prosecution added that Mututho barred all local residents who responded to his wife’s distress calls from putting out the fire, hence nothing was salvaged.
Mututho who looked terribly shaken by the sentence kept interjecting when the judge was reading it/PETER MWANGI
“The accused person then escaped by was arrested by officers from Ol-Joro Orok police post where he was booked for the offence,” said the prosecutor.
In his ruling, magistrate Kiptoon noted that the offence attracted a life imprisonment but opted to hand over the seven year jail term based on the mitigation of the accused person.
Mututho told the court in mitigation that he was a father of three children and was also the bread winner for his ageing mother and a disabled sister.
The charge sheet read that the house worth Sh70,000 belonged to his wife.
Mututho who looked terribly shaken by the sentence kept interjecting when the judge was reading it.
He has 14 days to appeal against the sentence.
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