After being found guilty four years ago of murdering his estranged lover's nine-year-old daughter in cold blood, a former prison warden was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

Benson Kimathi Marangu murdered Maribel Kapolon, the daughter of former Githongo senior resident magistrate Carol Kemei, in 2018, according to the prosecution.

The prosecution had lined up 22 witnesses to help prove that Marangu committed the heinous crime between September 6, 2018 and September 16, 2018, at an unknown location in the country, along with others who were not presented in court.

The girl was abducted in Meru town on her way home from Consolata Primary School on September 6, 2018, and her body was discovered 11 days later in Gitoro Forest, Meru County.

Kapolon's classmates reported that she was picked up at the drop-off point by a man she addressed as "uncle."

A postmortem examination revealed that the girl's assailants hit her on the head several times, causing serious injuries that led to her death.

Girl goes missing
The court found the second defendant, Francis Otudo, guilty of attempting to earn money through deception. Otudo claimed that he was holding the missing girl and threatened to kill her unless he was paid Sh500,000.

In a ruling read by Justice Lucy Gitari of the High Court in Chuka, Justice Robert Limo found that Otudo did not participate in the murder of the girl but took advantage of the situation to extort money from the family after learning of the girl's disappearance on social media.

Marangu denied committing the crime in his affidavit.

He also stated that he was a lover of the deceased's mother, whom he met in 2012 while she was working as a magistrate in Maua, Meru County, while transporting Kangeta prison inmates to court.

He claimed he later encountered the magistrate in court when his ex-girlfriend sued him for allegedly neglecting a child, though the case was later taken over by another magistrate.

He also stated that in 2013, he began a romantic relationship with Ms Kemei, the deceased's mother, which lasted until 2014, when she was transferred but refused to disclose her new workstation to him.

Marangu went on to say that in December 2016, while working as a tutor at a university campus in Maua town after quitting her job as a prison warder on April 4, 2016, Ms Kemei sent him a message informing him that she had been transferred to a different court but still within Meru County.

He went on to say that when their romantic relationship resumed in 2017, he met the magistrate's two children.

He told the court that he frequently picked up the magistrate and her children for a day out and that he would occasionally pick up the child after she was dropped off by the school bus in the evening.

Marangu drove Ms Kemei to Kapsabet for the burial of one of her father's friends on August 10, 2018, according to the court.

A barrage of insults
Ms Kemei introduced him as a friend while he was there, which he found offensive.

He also told the court that the magistrate spent the nights at her brother's house while in Kapsabet.

Marangu returned to Meru and went to Ms Kemei's house, where he met a teacher he identified as Joshua.

He later summoned the magistrate and demanded an explanation for the identity of the man he had discovered in her home, but she retorted that she was under no obligation to tell him who the visitor was.

Marangu was dissatisfied with the response and insisted on meeting that week to talk, but Ms Kemei said she would not be available on the suggested date.

Marangu informed the court that he suggested a different date, but Ms Kemei did not appear.

An enraged Marangu then hurled insults at her, declaring that "women are devils" and that he no longer wanted anything to do with them.

Ms Kemei's efforts to calm him down were futile, and communication between them ceased for a week until Ms Kemei inquired about a driving licence she had left in his vehicle on the way to Kapsabet.

Marangu, on the other hand, claimed the document was not in his vehicle, and communication between the two ceased once more.

On August 27, 2018, Marangu admitted to the magistrate that he was done with women and was now married.

The second accused admitted to using Ms Kemei's daughter's disappearance to extort money from the magistrate.

Otudo stated that he met Marangu in detention two days after his arrest, but he was familiar with Meru town because he attended school there on scholarship in 2009.

While the verdict was being read, defence lawyer Elias Mutuma pleaded with the court to remember that the two were first-time offenders and to be merciful to them.

The judge, however, stated that, despite the mitigation plea, the young girl should not have died so brutally.

"She was an innocent child full of love who even embraced a man who would later turn into a monster and end her life and feed her body to wild animals," Justice Limo said.

"Sacrificing an innocent child at the altar of a failed love affair was evil and beastly," he added.

The judge went on to say that he lacked the words to condemn such a heinous act and that the only way to do so was with a harsh sentence.

"The first accused is sentenced to 40 years in prison, and he has 14 days to appeal," the judge said.