Death penalty for a man who defiled, murdered Nyeri minor

Nyeri High Court on Thursday sentenced a 35-year-old man to a death sentence for defiling and murdering a seven-year-old girl.

Nicholus Julius Macharia was convicted before Justice Kizito Magare for the offence of murder.

Macharia was charged with the offence of murder contrary to section 203 as read with section 204 of the penal code.

The particulars were on May 24, 2025, at the Witemere area within Nyeri County, where he murdered a TBK. He pleaded guilty to the offence of murder after earlier pleading not guilty.

While reading his ruling, Justice  Marage said that the court received and recorded several exhibits, including clothing worn by the deceased, including pink trousers, a white shirt, a jacket, and green underwear, a spade and a fork jembe CCTV footage capturing the moments of the convict and the deceased.

The convict’s white shoes with black stripes. Cybercrime report and analytical reports from the government chemist. A confession statement, photographs of the crime scene and the convict’s medical assessment report.

The judge observed that a postmortem report of the deceased revealed multiple injuries indicative of trauma.

“There was a lesion on the left maxillary region of the face, and abrasions of both left and right orbital areas. The deceased had multiple abrasions to the oral mucosa of the lower lip, the gum, and the left lateral aspect of the mouth. The report also disclosed genital injuries, including broken hymen with several vaginal injuries with vaginal tears, lacerations and severe hemorrhage,” the judge said.

The high court judge stated that the court considered the victim impact statement of the child’s mother, the emotional trauma that she and the community were experiencing.

Adding that the accused pleaded for leniency without expressing remorse, but mitigating circumstances did not outweigh the severity of the offence, the breach of trust and the extreme harm caused.

“The convict does not deserve mercy, although he pleaded guilty; his conduct showed a deeply disturbing account revealing a profound disregard for human life and dignity,” Justice Magare stated.

  The judge said that during Macharia's confession in the presence of her sister, he attributed his actions to the devil, but the court observed that in the circumstances of this case, the responsibility rests with the offender.

“Despite killing and burying the minor in your house, you continued residing in the same house, fully cognizant that you had transformed it into a place of death and a cemetery. Such conduct underscores a disturbing level of moral depravity and aggravates the gravity of the offence, Justice Magare said.

In his ruling, the judge noted he considered several factors, including that the child was of tender age, the convict was a person who was trusted by the deceased, the act was a case of sexual violence and gender violence, citing that the accused had no mental problem.

"The minor was lured by a trusted person to her death. She was violently defiled and buried; were it not for the efforts of an officer and CCTV footage, she could not have been recovered," the judge observed.

“The minor died due to suffocation under great pain, as described by the convict himself. The pain suffered by the minor cannot be fathomable; it is beyond human understanding. Describing the convict as a beast is an understatement.

The offence was aggravated by unnecessary use of sexual violence; the convict abused a position of trust. The minor was subjected to inhuman and unusual treatment. The minor was degraded not only by being defiled but also buried in a shallow grave without a coffin or a decent burial in a house to remained unmarked grave,” Justice Magare stated.

The judge said that after reading the confession of the convict, the pain that the minor underwent is like an extract from a horror movie. The accused did feel the sanctity of human life and the vulnerability of children.

He observed that he looked at the two sentences available for the offence, including a life and death sentence.

“Defilement itself that the DPP has a chance to charge you with attracts a life sentence, so if I give you a life sentence, this does not make a difference if you defiled and left her alive or killed her,” he said.

“You choose to steal the life of a minor, destroy her body, and life of the secondary victims by killing her. The convict must reap what he sows by pleasing his flesh and caused her death,” the judge added.

Justice Magare explained that according to article 26.3 of the constitution, a person shall not be deprived right of his life intentionally except as authorised by law, section 204 of the penal code. Section 69 of prison act provides for how that is to be done.

According to section 69 of prison act, “When any person is sentenced to death shall be carried out by hanging the person by the neck until death, and the sentence shall be carried out in a manner as the commissioner shall direct,” he explained.

Section 204 provides that the sentence of murder is death; there has been no mitigating factor that has been demonstrated that will remove the death penalty from consideration.

“The court has carefully weighed the mitigation tendered against aggravating factors, the offence was committed against a seven-year-old girl in circumstances involving breach of trust as the convict was a friend of the family,” judge said.

In view of the circumstances and having considered the law and objective of the sentence, the court finds that the ultimate penalty remains available and applicable, the sentence must reflect the offence, denounce the conduct in the strongest term protect society, and serve as a deterrent measure.

“You are hereby sentenced to death, a death warrant will be transmitted to the competent authority for execution within 30 days, judge Magare ordered. 

However, the convict was given 14 days to appeal.