KENYA. MAN WHO KILLED HIV POSITIVE GRANDSON SENTENCED TO DEATH

Joseph Wambirwa Mwathi, 70, was sentenced to death in Kenya for killing his grandson on suspicion that the child was HIV positive.
Nyeri resident judge Michael Khamoni said the prosecution had proved that Mwathi murdered seven-year-old Samuel Mukiria Wanjiru.
The physically handicapped boy was killed on February 2, 2004, at Gatitu Village in Nyeri District, a few months after the death of his mother.
Mwathi's sons told the court that the boy's mother had died of an Aids-related illness.
One of the sons, Patrick Thanju, told the court that on the day in question, his father called him to the kitchen and told him he had "slaughtered" the boy since he was HIV positive. Thanju and his older brother, Samuel Mukiria, found the boy's body in a pool of blood.
"The boy's neck had been severed the way a goat is slaughtered at the abattoir," Thanju had told the court.
The two brothers then locked up their father in the bedroom and reported the matter to Mukurwe-ini police station.
In his judgment, Justice Khamoni, termed the action by the old man as barbaric. He dismissed a plea by the accused to be acquitted on grounds that he had suffered during the one year he was in remand prison. But the judge said: "There is only one punishment for those who murder, and that is death by hanging."