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Criminal proceedings, especially for capital offences, have very serious implications not only on the liberty, but also on the life of a suspect.

Though the burden of proof rests on the prosecution, there have been cases where suspects – who have no burden of any kind – plead guilty or confess to have committed such offences.

In the last two weeks, there have been at least four major chilling confessions and admissions  of guilt in the country.

On Sunday evening, a 48-year-old man was arrested for the murder of his mother, Beatrice Karanja.

Ms Karanja was on August 22, 2020 stabbed 17 times following a land dispute, according to detectives.

The suspect, Patrick Gatimu, confessed to the killing, saying his father, George Karanja, who died in 2006, had sub-divided the family property and ordered no one should transfer the same before the mother dies.

Consequently, he killed the mother to trigger and expedite the transfer.

Kiambu police boss Ali Nuno yesterday said they arrested Gatimu after investigations linked him to the brutal murder.

Gatimu is expected to undergo mental test before he is formally charged with murder.

Detectives recovered some of the clothes the suspect said he was wearing on the fateful day.

“We also recovered the murder weapon. The suspect claimed he killed the mother to trigger the transfer of the property as ordered by his late father, however, we are investigating further,” Nuno said.

The suspect, the firstborn and only son, is detained at Githunguri Police Station. His other siblings include a teacher in Embu, a nurse in London and a local banker.

Gatimu claimed to have killed the mother at around 11am. In yet another incident on January 5, an Akorino pastor admitted to have defiled and impregnated his own daughters, aged 14 and 16 respectively, before the Baricho Senior Principal Magistrate Anthony Mwicigi.

“The two are my daughters and I slept with them and impregnanted them,” he confessed.

Asked whether he was aware the charges he was pleading guilty to attract a life sentence, he threw in the towel, and gave a walkover to the prosecution. 

The magistrate – convinced that the plea of guilt was entered consciously, freely and in clear and unambiguous terms – handed him a 70-year jail term each for assaulting the two girls. 

Sentences will run consecutively, meaning he will serve 140 years behind bars.

When sentences run consecutively, the sentences run back to back, and not simultaneously.

“If a suspect pleads guilty, the plea is locked into place. However, if he pleads not guilty, the plea can be withdrawn later, and changed to a plea of guilty,” he said.

It is even stranger when suspects confess the offences, giving chilling details of how they committed the heinous offences.

About the same time, Lawrence Warunge gave a confession that has not only sent chills down the spine of many Kenyans, but also shocked, disgusted and enthralled the entire nation. 

Warunge confessed to killing  both his parents, brother, cousin and a mason on the night of January 5 in Karura village, Kiambu County.

The confession helped Homicide detectives from DCI unravel the mysterious multiple victim homicide.

Following the confession, detectives embarked on finding substantial independent corroborative evidence to support the confession.

Under the corpus delicti rule, detectives and the prosecution cannot solely rely on such confessions to obtain a conviction.

Other things

Warunge, who is expected to be charged in court on January 25, gave a chilling confession on how he planned and executed the murder.

The confession included where he bought the knife and other things in Thika, how he travelled from Thika to his rural home through Nairobi CBD, and how he practised to camouflage.

One such confession was that of a car hire dealer in the brutal murder of Mary Kamangara in 2019 and whose body was later dumped in Juja.

The dealer, Michael Mathenge revealed how the deceased’s side chick, Judy Mungai, procured her.

Wangui and the deceased’s husband, Joseph Kori, were later arrested.

On February 8, 2019 Githae took detectives to the scenes where they threw the items. Blood-stained bed sheets and  blankets believed to have been used to wrap the body were recovered.