- In his defence, however, Peter claimed that he was en route from Nairobi on March 23, at around 7:30 pm and did not kill Samson.
- He said he had gone to the city to sell cattle belonging to his employer George Chacha.
Image: FILE
It is, unfortunately, not an unlikely story for family members to kill each other over land disputes.
This was the case on March 23, 2019, when Peter Boke Nyamburi of Kubweye village killed his half-brother Samson Nyamburi Boke over a disagreement arising from family land.
On that evening at around 4 pm, Samson was with their neighbour- Chacha Mwita when a man visited him, wanting to be shown the land for sale.
As they were coming from the said plot, they met Peter who enquired what they were doing and upon telling him, he got angry.
An enraged Peter turned to his brother asking where Samson wanted them to live if he sold the land.
Samson however retreated and walked ahead but his brother followed him.
The elderly neighbour who was a state witness followed them and to his shock, he found Peter on top of Samson, who was pleading with the former to let him go.
Mwita tried to mediate to no avail as Peter told him off threatening to kill him.
This prompted the man to leave and shortly after, he received information that Samson was dead.
Mwita rushed to where he had left the brothers only to find a deceased Samson lying face down next to a blood-stained stone.
There was an injury to the dead man's head.
The story was corroborated by three other witnesses who found the deceased after the offence.
Among them was the village elder who notified the assistant chief of the incident.
It was also testified that Samson's family had disagreed with his plan to sell the land and that there was a civil case pending in court.
A doctor David Mwita of Migori County Referral Hospital performed a post-mortem on Samson's body and established that he had multiple bruises on the right and left side of the head.
He also found a big wound on the back of the head and another on the forehead.
During the incident, Samson also suffered a depressed skull fracture on the frontal forehead.
The doctor formed the opinion that the cause of death was head injury caused by a blunt object.
In his defence, however, Peter claimed that he was en route from Nairobi on March 23, at around 7:30 pm and did not kill Samson.
He said he had gone to the city to sell cattle belonging to his employer George Chacha.
He told the Migori High Court that Samson was his half-brother, and they shared a father but had different mothers.
Peter said when he saw the deceased after getting home, he fainted and when he regained consciousness, he was at the hospital where he was admitted for three days.
Despite some of his family members having testified of a dispute over land ownership, Peter denied the same.
He said their father had subdivided his land among the two wives and it was a buyer who had a dispute - not the family.
A pained Peter said after his half-brother's burial, their houses were burnt.
When the court deliberated the case, it was found that the state's case was circumstantial -meaning that none of the witnesses saw Peter kill his brother.
It however found that the chain of testimonies established that Peter was with his half-brother, and in a scuffle no less, before the latter's death.
Regarding Peter's alibi of defence- it shows that a defendant was not at the scene when the crime occurred - the court found that it was raised a bit too late in the case.
The alibi was raised on March 21, 2023, from April 2019 and the state could not ascertain it.
"I have considered PW1’s (Mwita) testimony and the same was not shaken at all. It placed the accused (Peter) at the scene when in an altercation with deceased (Samson), "Judge Roseline Wendoh said.
She also found that Peter had the intention or desire to kill Samson, pointing out that, using a stone to hit him on the head showed that he "obviously meant to inflict grievous harm or cause death of the deceased".
Delivering the judgement on August 23, 2023, Judge Wendoh found that the state had proven beyond reasonable doubt that Peter was guilty of murdering his half-brother.
"Having considered all the evidence, on record, this court is satisfied that it is the accused who attacked and fatally injured his half-brother because of a land dispute," she said.
"I find him guilty of the offence of murder as charged and convict him accordingly."