Joyce Waithera: How Hiring a Car For a Night Out Led Me to Death Row Sentence
What could link the seemingly ordinary act of renting a car to the chilling fate of Joyce Waithera, the charismatic club owner who once held the city’s nightlife in thrall, now facing a death row sentence?
In an interview with Itugi TV, the club owner narrated how she went from owning a thriving club business to becoming a murder suspect.
Born and bred in Nyeri, Mukurwe-ini, Waithera came from humble beginnings as her parents struggled to pay her school fees over the course of her education.
After completing her primary education, she dropped out of school. This was after she became pregnant at the tender age of 16 years. A year later, she got married and started a family.
However, eight years into the marriage, Waithera and her husband, went their separate ways owing to irreconcilable differences.
At 24 years she decided to make a fresh start. At this juncture, she began preparing and selling mandazis on the streets, a venture that she admitted did not generate enough income to help her sustain herself.
After eight months, she gave up that job and decided to relocate to Nairobi to seek a better source of livelihood.
To this end, Waithera house hunted in Kasarani where she found a suitable home with the help of a friend. As fate would have it, she found several jobs that sustained her and saved enough to allow her to set up an entertainment joint in the area.
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Her ownership of the club allowed her to meet new people who she befriended- a decision that would shape her life thereafter.
It is this dalliance that culminated with the friends inviting her to an event out of town which was expected to last two days. To that end, her friends requested her to hire a car to take them to their destination – a condition that she agreed to.
As per standard procedure, they agreed with the car owner how much they would pay and proceeded with the journey.
Upon arrival, the host, however, informed them that the point they had reached was not the actual destination. This led to differences with the taxi driver who demanded that the passengers pay more to factor in the extra distance.
One of the friends, unfortunately, became unruly and began assaulting the driver which led to a commotion inside the car. The driver began wailing and accused the passengers of trying to kill him.
“Traffic officers who were patrolling nearby heard the commotion and rushed to the scene. Me and one of my friends were arrested but the rest managed to escape,” she noted.
She was taken to Spring Valley Police Station and charged with attempted robbery in October 2013.
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“When we went to court, I was granted bail but was unable to pay so I stayed in remand for a year and charged with attempted robbery, attempted murder and handed a death sentence,” she said during the interview.
Waithera believes that she was scapegoated revealing that witnesses lined up by the prosecution accused her of physically assaulting the driver.
Additionally, the driver also testified that Waithera and her friends were armed and sought to harm him.
Thinking that her life was over, she was taken to Lang’ata Women’s Prison.
Her stars, however, aligned when a well-wisher, who was a friend who happened to be a lawyer and a frequent visitor at her club, visited her one day and said that he would take up her case.
After two years of appealing the case, the lawyer mounted a solid case and proved that her client did not participate in the act. She was acquitted after five years with the judge observing that they did not find tangible evidence to substantiate the allegations leveled against her.
Joyce Waithera: How Hiring a Car For a Night Out Led Me to Death Row Sentence