The Court of Appeal in Nyeri has set aside a death sentence by the Meru High Court to Edward Mutuma, who was found guilty of killing his two-week-old son on February 1, 2009, while at Kithare Village.

Mutuma was charged with the offence of murder contrary to section 203 as read with section 204 of the Penal Code. However, he denied the murder charge, and the prosecution called six witnesses.

At the end of the trial, he was found with a case to answer and was placed on his defence, and upon considering the evidence, the court sentenced him to suffer death.

Aggrieved with the conviction and sentence, Mutuma moved to the Court of Appeal, faulting the judge for meting out a harsh sentence on him and also arguing that the learned judge relied on circumstantial evidence.

Judgement

Justices Sankale Ole Kantai, Lesiit Jessie and Abida Ali-Aroni on May 29, 2026, dismissed Mutuma’s appeal on conviction but set aside his death sentence and sentenced him to 25 years in prison.

In the detailed judgement, the three-judge bench stated that it is settled that the death penalty is not the only available penalty following the Muruatetu decision (supra), adding that the appellants’ (Mutuma) complaint of the death penalty is merited.

“The appeal succeeds to the extent that the death sentence is set aside, and in its place the appellant (Mutuma) is sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment from the date of his arrest,” the judges ruled.

According to Jocelyn Ngugi, the mother of the deceased, she had visited Mutuma, the father of her son, at his home on February 1, 2009, at about 10 am. However, she did not find him, but his parents were home.

After about 20 minutes, Mutuma came home, and he requested that she join him at his house. Their son fell asleep, and she placed him on a chair, and she went back to Mutuma’s parents’ place.

While Jocelyn was having a conversation with Mutuma’s parents, she heard the child crying and went to breastfeed him, and the deceased slept again, and she placed him back on the chair and went back to his boyfriend’s parents.

After a short while, she decided to check on the child and did not find him. She asked the father about the child’s whereabouts, and he told her that the child was asleep on the bed.

She asked him why he had moved the baby from the chair, and he looked disturbed. Joycelyn called his mother, and they searched for the child but did not find him.

Mutuma’s mother started screaming, attracting people to their home. Sensing danger, he started running away, but he was caught, and the matter was reported to the police, who visited the home and asked him to show them where the child was.

He led them to a shamba planted with bananas about 50 metres away, and they found the baby, who was already dead.

In her testimony, Joycelyn stated that she was not married to Mutuma, but they had known each other for a year, and before the incident, they had no issues between them nor with his parents.

According to Joycelyn’s mother, her daughter had left their home on the fateful day and gone to the grandmother of the child for blessings because the child was crying a lot.