Kabarnet Law Courts/FILE
Kabarnet principal magistrate Purity Koskey ordered that Viola Kangogo be detained at the facility pending a second mental assessment.
Kangogo, 28, is alleged to have killed the infant on March 4 at around 8 pm at their home in Turukwei village within Baringo Central subcounty.
The court was informed that a mental assessment by psychiatrist Dr Stanley Kilelit found her to be of unsound mind when she was arraigned. The Director of Public Prosecutions is seeking to charge Kango with infanticide contrary to Section 210 as read with Section 205 of the Penal Code.
Kilelit informed the court that the mental assessment was not clear on what is ailing the suspect and asked the court to allow her detention pending another mental assessment.
The magistrate ordered that, in the circumstances, a second assessment be done and, in the interim, the suspect be held at Eldoret Women GK Prison.
Kangogo’s husband Ronald Yator, in a report made to the police, said they have been living together with his wife and child as a family peacefully until the fateful day.
Yator said that on March 3, Kangogo accused him of having extra-marital affairs with some women, an allegation that led to a heated argument.
Following the accusations and argument, the husband said the accused became agitated and started threatening to kill him or the child.
Yator added that the accused picked a scarf and tied it around the child’s neck to strangle the baby, but he intervened and saved the minor.
The following day, he said, at about 8 p.m., the wife left home, leaving him and the child only to return later while very drunk. He said upon returning, she found them still awake, and when he asked her to breastfeed the child, she lifted up the baby and brutally hit her head on a stone, killing the child instantly.
The husband said that upon realising that she had killed the child, the wife attempted to commit suicide, but he restrained her. The case is set for mention on April 4.
