Love triangle murder trial fails as suspect acquitted

A man accused of killing his rival in a love triangle has been acquitted after the High Court in Kitale found that the evidence presented was weak.

Brian Soita Wafula had been charged with the murder of Jairus Wanyonyi Khamala following a violent incident in February 2023 at Milele village in Trans Nzoia.

Delivering the judgment on Monday, Justice Robert Limo said the evidence linking Wafula to the assault was largely based on suspicion.

The court heard that both Wafula and Khamala were dating the same schoolgirl, which the prosecution argued provided the motive for a violent attack.

The girl testified about her relationship with both men.

“She stated that both, the accused and the deceased, were her boyfriends, and she dated both of them. She stated she did not know if the two knew each other because she used to meet them at separate times,” court documents show.

During the proceedings, Wafula maintained his innocence and gave an unsworn statement in his defence.

He told the court he had gone to pick his phone from the girl and denied any involvement in the violence.

He said he did not see the deceased on the material day and claimed he had been framed.

His father, Eliud Soita Wanyonyi, also testified that his son was at home on the night of the incident and that he did not see him leave.

The prosecution had contended that Wafula fatally struck Khamala on the head with a blunt object. However, the court found the case had significant gaps.

On the evening of the killing, the girl said Wafula went to her home to collect his phone. She noticed a black rubber pipe tied around his stomach.

Later, she saw a black pipe lying near where the deceased’s body was found.

However, another witness, Amos Namiti Wafula, testified that the object found at the scene was actually his bicycle bladder.

Amos told the court he had been asked to transport the deceased to hospital after being informed that the victim’s condition was critical.

He followed the transfer of the victim to Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, where he later confirmed that Khamala had died from his injuries.

Amos was accompanied by Enock, who is the brother of the deceased.

An officer attached to DCI Kiminini, who took over the investigation, told the court that his probe established the existence of a love triangle.

“He stated that the scene had been interfered with and did not get any exhibit. That he got statements from witnesses and the accused was arrested on February 23, 2023, with the help of ‘mukasas’ (village elders),” court documents show.

The officer said the girl “possibly took off on the material time when she realised that the two boyfriends, the accused and deceased, were going to meet”.

“He stated that though the accused was seen with a pipe, he did not recover the same but that the cause of death was blunt injury to the head adding that the deceased was found unconscious bleeding from the mouth and nose.”

Postmortem results concluded that the official cause of death was a severe head injury resulting from blunt trauma.

However, the court raised concerns over the prosecution’s failure to produce the alleged murder weapon.

Justice Limo noted that this contradiction weakened the inference that the pipe seen with the accused was the weapon used to inflict the fatal injuries.

He also said the source and intensity of light at night must be ascertainable for positive identification. The judge further pointed to a missing witness.

“One is left wondering why … a key witness like Enock, who is mentioned as being present with the deceased at the material time, was not called as a witness,” he said.

While the court accepted that the deceased died from a severe head injury caused by blunt trauma and that malice could be inferred from the gravity of the injuries, it found that there was no proof of who inflicted the fatal blow.

The judge concluded that the circumstantial evidence, including a prior altercation between the two men over the same girl, was hearsay and could not fill the gaps.

Wafula was found not guilty and acquitted, with the court ruling that the prosecution’s circumstantial evidence was too weak to sustain a conviction.