A Makadara court has summoned a police doctor who recommended a lesser charge for a woman who stabbed her boyfriend with a kitchen knife.
According to court documents, police surgeon Dr Joseph Maundu had recommended an assault charge against a grievous harm charge to Elizabeth Wanjiku Waweru.
Wanjiku had appeared before Makadara senior principal magistrate Merissa Opondo to take plea for assault. She is accused of stabbing Fredrick Mutambi Odero with a kitchen knife on the chest on June 28.
Wanjiku told court that she had talked to the complainant and that they have agreed to withdraw the charges as she will pay for the hospital bill.
But when Opondo interrogated Odero further, she found loopholes as to why Maungu recommended an assault charge.
Odero told the court that he was stabbed with a kitchen knife on the chest, was stitched and got admitted for six days at a hospital in Kahawa West where he lives.
But Opondo’s view was that the charges pressed on Wanjiku are not consistent with the injuries Odero sustained.
She said the accused should have been charged with causing grievous harm whose penalty is life imprisonment.
“I don’t understand how stabbing a person and causing him such pain can be equivalent to a mere assault charge, Maundu should come here and explain how he considered this to be an assault,” she said.
State counsel Pamela Nzambi agreed with Opondo that the charges did not tally with the injuries on the complainant.
Odero had said he wanted to withdraw the case after reconciling with Wanjiku and agreeing on the bill settlement.
But Opondo said the suspect is going to pay more for the injuries and not the hospital bill alone.
Wanjiku, a casual laborer, was arrested on June 28.
Odero said he used to hire Wajiku to do his laundry.
The two had an affair though Odero had informed her that he has a wife who lives upcountry, the court heard.
On the material day, when Wanjiku heard that Odero’s wife had come to the city, she went armed with a knife.
“That night I heard a knock at the door in the middle of the night when I went to open, she pounced on me and stabbed me on the chest,” Odero said.
Opondo turned down Wanjiku’s applications to withdraw the case and to be freed on bond.
She postponed Wanjiku’s plea taking until Maundu appeared in court.
The matter will be mentioned on Wednesday.
Edited by R.Wamochie