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Why I killed my husband

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Published on Saturday, 30 August 2008 17:25

She stares blankly into space, as if she is unaware of what is happening around her. Then she suddenly jerks into motion shaking her head as she wipes tears from her eyes.

Clemencia Moraa Mbunya’s mind must have wandered far away. The 61 year old woman is a bitter mother having been forced to spend her life in prison for an offence she committed while insane.

Clemencia Moraa during the interview with CCI at Kodiaga Women’s prison. Photo:James Keyi/Standard

Moraa admits to having killed her spouse, but adds that her action was not deliberate, as she was mentally unsound.

And she accuses her relatives and friends of deserting her, when she needed them most.

“I had been ailing from malaria for about three years. The illness later developed into cerebral malaria. Then one night something happened that completely changed my life,” Moraa explains thoughtfully.

From Kodiaga Women’s Prison, Kisumu, where she is incarcerated, Moraa narrated to CCI how she killed her husband and how it has changed her life.

“I slashed my husband with a panga, but cannot recall what happened soon after that,” she says.

She claims friends and relatives failed to defend her by explaining she did not kill her husband deliberately.

“I was taken to several hospitals but the illness continued. Then in late 1999, something that completely changed my life and that of my children happened,” she recalls.

“I was asleep with my husband in Kegogi village, Gucha district and then suddenly there was a loud cry and later I saw the body of my husband and a bloodstained panga next to it,” she says as her mind strays away.

Moraa says that she lived happily with her late husband. However, she laments, the community failed to understand that she was not of sound mind when she committed the offence.  Moraa continues: “I do not know why I did it. We rarely quarrelled, although we had small differences common among married couples.”

The woman recalls how life moved so fast adding the day after the murder, she was moved to Kisii General Hospital, and shortly afterwards transferred to a mental hospital in Nairobi. “Doctors treated me for mental illness at this facility for two years,” she reveals. However, after her conviction at a court in Kisii in February 2002, she was jailed under presidential pleasure. This came after spending almost two years in remand at the Kisii GK Prison.

The officer in-charge of Kodiaga Women’s Prison, Miriam Were, explains that convicts jailed under Presidential Pleasure are those who commit an offence while they are still minors.

“This group of convicts also includes those who the court determines committed an offence while mentally unstable,” explains Were. She says that for underage convicts to be jailed under Presidential pleasure, they have to be serving a sentence of seven or more years.

Moraa says she was shocked when the judgment was read, adding that some people rejoiced at her predicament. She says they accused her of having killed her husband for marrying a second wife. The court decided that the incident was as a result of my sickness.

Some people blamed me for killing my husband because I was not comfortable with my co-wife, but that is not true and is far-fetched,” she says.

Moraa says that her co-wife has since passed on. She laments that no one visits her in jail adding it has worsened her misery, making her feel like an outcast. “Deep down I know I am a God-fearing woman and a good person,” she says.

Moraa regrets that her six children, who are all above 15 years old, have not proceeded to secondary school for lack of fees. “They can barely change their lives by farmng on the one and half acre piece of land at home. Often, I cry when I think about their suffering,” she says her eyes welling in tears.

“I cry often hoping that one day my sentence will be reviewed and I will be pardoned. I miss my children and I want to change their lives, although it may be a bit too late,” she laments.

Moraa’s only hope is that the President will have mercy and set her free.

Were explains that a board of review is often appointed by the President to examine files of inmates jailed under Presidential Pleasure. Some are pardoned.

“Issues such as the age of an inmate and the period they have been in prison are taken into consideration before one is considered for pardon,” she elaborates. “I can not be hopeful, knowing that I have no life of my own left. My children have no future,” Moraa grumbles.

The lives of prisoners jailed under presidential pleasure, like those of death row convicts is somewhat restricted.

“Prison regulations bars those jailed on Presidential Pleasure from working outside the precincts of the jails,” says Were.

However, the officer says that she has come up with a way of making Moraa acquire life skills and get busy.

She is learning embroidery in prison. Moraa urges women not to break the law, since once in prison, their children’s lives are often irreparably destroyed

“Prison life can never be good. It completely destroys one’s soul,” she concludes with a sad face.