On the night of April 5-6, 2012, RM witnessed something she should not have been subjected to - the murder of her mother, Maria Sila by her father, Martin Sila.
That night, the Muli's of Mutomo in Kitui County had gone to bed when Sila arrived home from Nairobi where he worked.
Sometime past 11 pm, RM awoke to her younger sister crying and found her father beating her mother, ignorant to the grandmother's pleadings for him to stop.
RM's father would then slap his wife before Maria managed to free herself and ran to the farm.
Sila however chased her and upon catching up with her, he picked a stick and beat her.
When the stick broke, the man shamelessly summoned his son, sending him for a belt so he could continue beating his wife, who at that point was lying on the ground.
The belt too broke and as he went searching for another stick, Maria managed to once again get up and ran back home.
She was followed by RM, who gave her a cup of water at her request.
But as Maria was quenching her thirst, her husband got home and was not done with his assault, he kicked the cup away and picked a stool which he used to hit his wife on the head.
Not minding that Maria had fallen and was bleeding from her head, Sila picked up a stone which he threatened to hit her with.
His brother however managed to snatch the stone before Sila inflicted any more injuries on his wife.
Through the commotion, his mother and siblings had unsuccessfully tried to get him to stop.
As the family began making arrangements to take Maria to the hospital, they realised it was too late as she had already passed on.
They instead carried her body into the house and made a report at Kisayani Administrative Police Post and later to Mutomo Police Station.
When police went to the scene, Sila had already left.
It was later found that at around 1:30 am, he surrendered himself at Kithani AP, where he was arrested and taken to Mutomo Police Station.
A postmortem on Maria's body showed that she died due to a severe head injury caused by an assault.
After the conclusion of investigations, Sila was arraigned at the High Court at Kitui and charged with murder.
When he was placed on defence, he told the court that he reached home at 12:30 am on the material night and found a man in his house.
A fight ensued between them and in the process, the man hit Maria, who screamed.
Sila said he ran after the man but he got away and when he got back to his wife, she told him that she was injured on the head and that she had fallen on a stool in the course of the commotion.
The court heard that Sila did not intend to kill his wife and he regretted having lost her.
After considering the evidence, the trial court convicted and sentenced him to death.
Aggrieved by the court's decision, Sila lodged an instant appeal faulting the trial Judge for convicting him saying the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.
He also argued that the element of malice aforethought was not proved and that the death sentence was harsh.
Sila said he had a cordial relationship with his wife that on the material night, he was drunk and that in view of the intoxication, he had no knowledge or intention to kill Maria.
On the aforementioned argument, he added that there was no premeditation in praying for a lenient sentence.
On its part, the prosecution submitted that it had proven the case beyond a reasonable doubt, adding that Sila intended to commit the offence.
It said the evidence by his daughter demonstrated a clear intention to murder or inflict serious bodily injuries.
This is as Sila, despite pleas from his children, mother, brothers, and neighbors beat his wife to death.
Upon reviewing the case, Court of Appeal judges Agnes Murgor, Sankale Ole Kantai, and Mwaniki Gachoka found that the case was proven to the required standards.
It concluded that Sila intended to kill or cause harm to his wife, owing to his deaf ears to the pleas to stop beating her and trying to hit her with a stone, even after Maria was subdued.
"These were actions of a person who intended to kill the deceased or to cause grievous harm to her, which eventually happened," the court concluded.
Further, on the subject of intoxication, the court said Sila did not submit any evidence to prove his statement.
It was however proven that as per his actions on the night, he was in full control of himself.
The appellate judges also held that the death sentence imposed on Sila was lawful, pointing out that despite his wife being unarmed, he repeatedly beat her.
The court also denied the convict's plea for leniency on grounds of it not being justified in the circumstances of this case.
"In our view, the sentence that was meted out was lawful in the circumstances and we will only interfere with it to the extent that we commute the death sentence to life imprisonment," the October 6, judgement reads.