Mother who strangled daughter gets five-year non-custodial sentence
Crime and Justice
By
Joackim Bwana
| Sep 14, 2026
Josephine Ndunge strangled her six year old daughter (AMK) with her bare hands for failing to wake up after coming back from school tired.
27-year-old Ndunge had attempted to wake up her daughter for the second time, but she declined and, out of anger, decided to strangle her to death.
After she realised the minor was dead, she rushed to her mother Milka Ndunge and lied to her that her granddaughter had consumed poison and was lying on the bed.
Milka tried to give the girl some milk and perform first aid but she did not respond and upon rushing her to hospital, she was pronounced dead.
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A postmortem report revealed that AMK died of asphyxia.
Upon interrogation by police, Ndunge confessed that she strangled her daughter to death.
She was initially charged with murder before she entered a plea bargaining with the prosecution, and the charge was reduced to manslaughter.
State Prosecutor Agatha Abang told Justice Noel Adagi that AMK was put to sleep by her mother after she came from school tired. Later Ndunge went to wake her up but she refused to get out of bed.
She went outside for a while and returned to wake up the daughter for the second time and when she declined to wake up, Ndunge got angry and strangled her to death.
“The accused went to wake up the deceased but she did not wake up and the accused went outside for a little while. Later the accused went back to wake up the deceased but she failed to wake up and the accused became angry with the deceased and strangled her using her hands whereby the deceased died instantly,” said Abang.
In mitigation, Ndunge said that she was remorseful and had learnt her lesson.
Milka pleaded with the court to grant her a non-custodial sentence having agreed with the Aiini Clan to forgive and reintegrate her back to the community.
Abang told the judge that the Aiini Clan to which the Ndunge belongs to were involved in plea bargain and based on Kamba culture, the Aiini Clan’s has supreme authority and its decision is binding on the parties.
In his verdict, Justice Adagi allowed Ndunge to serve a five years non-custodial sentence through the supervision of a probation officer at Machakos.
Justice Adagi convicted and sentenced Ndunge on her own plea of guilty for the offence of Manslaughter contrary to section 202 as read with section 205 of the Penal code.
“I exercise discretion and sentence the accused to Community Service Order for a period of Five years. The Service Order shall be supervised through the authorized Probation Office within Machakos County,” said Noel Adagi.
The judge observed that the accused entered into a plea bargaining and pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter which carries up to life imprisonment upon conviction.
He also noted that she was remorseful, young and spent a considerable time in remand.
“The parties having reached a plea bargain agreement, which this court has had the opportunity to peruse through and has established that the accused strangled her own child for failing to wake up when the accused tried to wake her,” said Justice Adagi.