Man in plea bargain with family over father’s killing
The High Court in Eldoret has allowed an application by a 32-year-old man accused of killing his father in to enter into a plea bargain with his family members.
Justice Reuben Nyakundi gave the murder suspect Silas Mwenda’s advocate Damaris Moronge upto April 9, 2024 to negotiate the deal and report back to him about the outcome.
This was after the accused person, through his lawyer, informed the packed court that he intended to seek a plea bargain with his family in order to face a lesser charge of manslaughter.
The suspect in his application had told the court that his family was ready and willing to embrace the deal for sake of getting closure in the painful and unfortunate incident that occurred last year.
Moronge brought to the attention of the court that the family of the deceased wants to enter into a plea bargain on condition that their mother should not be involved in the deal on medical grounds.
She told the court that since the deceased, John Marete died at the hands of his son, his wife developed high blood pressure and that besides, she has undergone three operations.
“The family of the deceased says they do not want their mother to be involved in the plea bargain deal since she was still healing from the painful incident of losing her husband in the hands of their own son,” Moronge told the court.
The accused, who is currently being held at Eldoret GK remand prison, was arrested by police officers attached to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) over the brutal murder of his father in his house.
Mwende committed the alleged offence on March 1, 023 at Kipkaren estate in Kapseret sub county, Uasin Gishu county.
The accused is said to have approached his parents and told them that he was not feeling well and requested them to give him money to seek medication at a nearby public health facility.
When they ignored his request, he decided to pick a meat grinder belonging to his father in the house with the intention of selling it to raise money for his medication.
It was at this juncture that his father confronted him demanding to know why he was taking his meat grinder for sale without his consent.
