Former Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) officer Peter Mugure Mwaura has been sentenced to life imprisonment after the High Court found him guilty of murdering his wife and their two young children in a case that shocked the country.
Delivering the sentence on Tuesday, Justice Martin Muya described the killings as “barbaric” and said the severity of the crime justified a life sentence despite the years Mugure had already spent in remand awaiting the conclusion of his trial.
“I have gone through the victim impact assessment report and taken into consideration that the murders of the three were barbaric. In the circumstances of this case, and bearing in mind the time the accused person has been in custody, I sentence him to life imprisonment,” Justice Muya said.
The judge noted that while the defence had presented mitigating factors, they were outweighed by the brutality of the murders and the devastating impact the crime had on the victims’ family.
The sentence follows Mugure’s conviction for the murders of his 31-year-old estranged wife, Joyce Syombua Maua, their 10-year-old daughter Shanice Mugure Mwaura, also known as Shanice Maua, and their five-year-old son Peter Mwaura Junior, alias Prince Michael.
The prosecution had urged the court to impose the death penalty, arguing that the murders were premeditated, exceptionally cruel and committed against Mugure’s own family. However, Justice Muya opted for life imprisonment after considering the victim impact assessment report, the circumstances of the case and the period the former military officer had remained in custody during the trial.
The case dates back to October 2019, when Joyce Syombua and her two children disappeared after reportedly visiting Mugure at the Laikipia Airbase in Nanyuki. Their disappearance triggered an intensive investigation that ended with the discovery of their bodies buried in a shallow grave in Thigithu, Nanyuki.
During the trial, the prosecution relied on both forensic and circumstantial evidence, as well as testimony from key witnesses, to link Mugure to the killings.
Among the prosecution’s most critical witnesses was Mugure’s former colleague, Collins Pamba, who admitted assisting in disposing of the bodies after entering into a plea agreement with the prosecution.
Pamba testified that he found Syombua’s body wrapped in a gunny bag inside Mugure’s house at the Laikipia Airbase, while the bodies of the two children had been placed in a bathtub. He told the court that the bodies were loaded into Mugure’s vehicle, transported from the airbase and buried in a shallow grave before being covered with soil.
Justice Muya found that the murders had been carefully planned rather than committed in the heat of the moment. The court heard that Mugure had visited the burial site before the killings and later lured his estranged wife and their children to the airbase following a disagreement over child maintenance.
“Evidence shows that the accused murdered his wife and two children, stacked their bodies in body bags and hid them in the boot of his car. This goes to say that the accused had hatched the plot to murder the deceased persons,” the judge ruled during the conviction.
Medical evidence presented in court showed that Syombua died from blunt force trauma, while both children were strangled. DNA analysis also confirmed that Mugure was the biological father of the two children, weakening part of the defence presented during the trial.
Following Tuesday’s sentencing, Mugure told the court that he disagreed with both the conviction and the punishment imposed.
“With tremendous respect to the court, I am unable to agree with the verdict,” he told the judge.
Justice Muya informed him that he has a constitutional right to appeal both the conviction and the sentence before the Court of Appeal.
The proceedings ended on an emotional note when Joyce Syombua’s mother addressed the court and said she had forgiven the man convicted of killing her daughter and grandchildren.
