Police in Mwiyala in the outskirts of Kakamega town, Kenya has arrested a 32-year-old woman who served her two children with food laced with poison leading to their death.
Pherine Maero, a nurse by profession, poisoned her two children, aged 7 and 9, on Saturday night, March 5 and later called her estranged husband, to “come and collect the bodies of your children.”
Charles Akhonya, a watchman at the apartment where she lives, said the woman approached him at the gate at 3am, urging him to open the gate for the ‘husband’, but on following them to their house, he learned of two children lying dead on their bed.
The woman, who tried to stab herself with a knife on the neck, was rescued and is receiving treatment at a Kakamega hospital, even as police investigate the matter.
Neighbours who spoke to the press have divulged that the woman has been chaotic since separating from her husband, at one point smashing her husband’s car which was parked at the apartment.
Kakamega Central OCPD Valerian Obore confirmed the incident, saying the suspect, who is in critical condition at the hospital, will be arraigned for murder upon recovery.
The bodies of the minors were removed to the Kakamega County General Teaching & Referral Hospital mortuary.
Maternal filicide is defined as child murder by the mother. Infanticide is child murder in the first year of life. The term neonaticide was coined by Resnick (9) to describe murder of an infant within the first 24 hours of life.
Filicide is the murder of a child by a parent. Despite making up approximately 18% of all domestic homicides each year, precise data on the characteristics of filicide are difficult to establish due to the smaller numbers and varied cases.
In cases where children are killed intentionally, women are more likely to kill babies and newborns, particularly in circumstances of unwanted pregnancies. Such offenders are more likely to be young and have low levels of social support, although it is increasingly reported among older women.