SIAYA, Kenya, Feb 16 – A Siaya court has sentenced a fifteen-year-old boy to three years probation after he was found guilty of murdering a two-months-old baby in Gem sub-county.
The boy had been accused of murdering the infant in Uriri location of Gem sub-county on July 22, 2021.
The accused who is a second born in a family of five siblings was said to have been living with his maternal aunt when the incident took place.
Dorcas Atieno, the mother of the deceased told the court that her two-months-old baby died in the hands on the accused on the night of her father-in-law’s burial.
She told the court that she had left the child while sleeping in the house and when she went to check on her, found that she had died.
She stated that the fifteen-year-old boy was the one who was found inside the house.
The mother painfully explained to the court that when she entered the house, the accused left the room and fled home immediately after it was noticed that the child was dead.
Paul Oloo, a medical officer who performed postmortem on the body the child at the Yala sub-county hospital mortuary confirmed the cause of death to be strangulation.
He told the court that there were blood clots in both nostrils and on the upper lip of the infant.
Ligature mark on the mid part of the neck, an indication that the victim died from suffocation as a result of strangling.
The accused’s advocate however pleaded with the court for leniency saying that the boy had changed.
Siaya High Court Lady Justice Roseline Aburili however slapped him with the three-year probation during which he will live with his parents but will be reporting to the probation officer occasionally and is not supposed to leave the village without permission from the probation officer.
He will continue with his education as he serves the probation sentence until he turns eighteen when his sentence will be reviewed.
