A shopkeeper killed her four-month-old daughter, walked into the Nyeri Police Station and begged officers on duty to lock her up.
Priscah Gichohi, 32, told officers she could not bear the shame.
On Thursday Ms Gichohi braved the Thursday evening rain, walked to the road and boarded a matatu from Githuri Village in Mathari, Nyeri County, at 6.30pm to the police station.
There, she confessed to killing her daughter.
Her first-born is an 11-year-old boy. “When I saw the baby breath her last, I was enveloped in shame and guilt. I did not want to run away. I was so ashamed. I could face anybody. I just want to face justice. I have given myself up for the courts to decide,” Ms Gichohi told our reporter at the police station.
She added: “I don’t know what came over me. I don’t know where the thought came from. I loved my daughter. I found myself hanging her with a scarf,” she said.
Ms Gichohi gave the officers the directions to her house, where they found the lifeless body of the baby, a scarf around her neck.
She runs a shop and weaves sweaters in Nyeri town.
Although Ms Gichohi is a single mother, she says that separation from her husband was not an issue and maintains that something must have “happened” to her.
“I didn’t know I could do such a thing. I am not frustrated in life. We separated with my husband amicably. I didn’t have any money issues because I have a business and my parents have been very supportive. They have always bailed me out financially whenever I am in any financial need,” she poured out.
But her mother, Ms Susan Warundu Gichohi, contradicted Priscah’s version of events. She said her daughter had tried to commit suicide last month and that she had been living with her for the past one month after separating from the boyfriend.
“She had tried throwing herself into River Chania with the baby but members of the public stopped her,” said Mrs Gichohi.
Neighbours who came to see Ms Gichohi at the police station Friday were baffled by the cruel act and her composure as she explained what happened.
Nyeri police chief Adiel Nyange said investigations had started.-nation.co.ke
