Suicide claim adds twist to triple murder trial

THE second week of the High Court trial of a Kavango resident accused of murdering three people through arson, ended with a twist in the tail on Friday, in the wake of a claim that triple-murder suspect Maria Kandingo had indicated earlier last week that she was contemplating suicide.

Judge Kato van Niekerk held an extended court session until after nightfall on Friday as a result of the claim that Kandingo might be planning to take her own life. The trial was set to be postponed until later in the year after the State’s eighth witness had completed her testimony on Friday.However, State advocate Rolanda Gertze informed the Judge that the prosecution would be asking that Kandingo, who had remained free on a warning from the court, should be remanded in custody until the trial continued, because the State had received information that she wanted to commit suicide.Kandingo’s trial started two weeks earlier, when she pleaded guilty to a charge of arson, but denied guilt on three counts of murder and another three charges of attempted murder.Kandingo admitted that she had set a hut belonging to her mother-in-law, Selma Kambuki Kasivi (52), on fire at Mururani village in the Kavango Region on the evening of December 5 2002.She claimed that she did not, however, know that Kasivi and five of her grandchildren were sleeping in the hut at the time.Kasivi and two children – a four-year-old boy, Paulus Kampanza Sinana, and a two-year-old girl, Mulweyi Regina Musasa – died in the blaze.According to Kandingo, she wanted to vent her anger and frustration at her mother-in-law by setting the hut on fire.In an explanation of her plea, she said it was because she was being beaten and mistreated by her husband, and yet her mother-in-law did not help her to address this situation.While she denied that she had intended to kill anyone with the fire, she however admitted responsibility for causing the three deaths, and tendered a plea of guilty to three counts of culpable homicide – a plea that the State did not accept, though.In the past two weeks, a sometimes confusing and contradictory picture of the events of the evening of December 5 2002 has emerged before Judge Van Niekerk, as Kandingo’s defence counsel, Bradley Basson, devoted hours of cross-examination of prosecution witnesses to reveal numerous points on which their versions of the events differed from each other.The bulk of the trial proceedings on Friday were taken up by the hearing of evidence on the suspicion that Kandingo might be suicidal.State witness Maria Ntumba told the Judge that Kandingo had made a remark to her on Monday last week, to the effect that she had been looking for a well-known poisonous plant from the Kavango Region at the place where she has been staying outside Windhoek during the trial, and that she could have eaten it if she had found it.Kandingo (28), who told the court she had her child at the age of 12, has been widowed since the time of the alleged crimes.She is also in chronic ill health, and needs to take medication daily.She denied on Friday that she was thinking of taking her own life.She told the court that in fact she had only made a remark in jest in reaction to a comment that Ntumba had first made to her.”I still want to live longer.I don’t have any reason to commit suicide.That’s not good,” she told the Judge.She had already been in Police custody for a year and four months before she was released, and in that time, she said, she had suffered as she was not taken care of by the Police.Judge Van Niekerk is not taking the issue lightly.While she extended Kandingo’s warning from the court for the weekend, allowing her to remain out of custody in this time, she also said she wanted arrangements to be made for Kandingo to see a psychologist who could try to gain insight into Kandingo’s emotional state.The case is now set to return to court today.The trial was set to be postponed until later in the year after the State’s eighth witness had completed her testimony on Friday.However, State advocate Rolanda Gertze informed the Judge that the prosecution would be asking that Kandingo, who had remained free on a warning from the court, should be remanded in custody until the trial continued, because the State had received information that she wanted to commit suicide.Kandingo’s trial started two weeks earlier, when she pleaded guilty to a charge of arson, but denied guilt on three counts of murder and another three charges of attempted murder.Kandingo admitted that she had set a hut belonging to her mother-in-law, Selma Kambuki Kasivi (52), on fire at Mururani village in the Kavango Region on the evening of December 5 2002.She claimed that she did not, however, know that Kasivi and five of her grandchildren were sleeping in the hut at the time.Kasivi and two children – a four-year-old boy, Paulus Kampanza Sinana, and a two-year-old girl, Mulweyi Regina Musasa – died in the blaze.According to Kandingo, she wanted to vent her anger and frustration at her mother-in-law by setting the hut on fire.In an explanation of her plea, she said it was because she was being beaten and mistreated by her husband, and yet her mother-in-law did not help her to address this situation.While she denied that she had intended to kill anyone with the fire, she however admitted responsibility for causing the three deaths, and tendered a plea of guilty to three counts of culpable homicide – a plea that the State did not accept, though.In the past two weeks, a sometimes confusing and contradictory picture of the events of the evening of December 5 2002 has emerged before Judge Van Niekerk, as Kandingo’s defence counsel, Bradley Basson, devoted hours of cross-examination of prosecution witnesses to reveal numerous points on which their versions of the events differed from each other.The bulk of the trial proceedings on Friday were taken up by the hearing of evidence on the suspicion that Kandingo might be suicidal.State witness Maria Ntumba told the Judge that Kandingo had made a remark to her on Monday last week, to the effect that she had been looking for a well-known poisonous plant from the Kavango Region at the place where she has been staying outside Windhoek during the trial, and that she could have eaten it if she had found it.Kandingo (28), who told the court she had her child at the age of 12, has been widowed since the time of the alleged crimes.She is also in chronic ill health, and needs to take medication daily.She denied on Friday that she was thinking of taking her own life.She told the court that in fact she had only made a remark in jest in reaction to a comment that Ntumba had first made to her.”I still want to live longer.I don’t have any reason to commit suicide.That’s not good,” she told the Judge.She had already been in Police custody for a year and four months before she was released, and in that time, she said, she had suffered as she was not taken care of by the Police.Judge Van Niekerk is not taking the issue lightly.While she extended Kandingo’s warning from the court for the weekend, allowing her to remain out of custody in this time, she also said she wanted arrangements to be made for Kandingo to see a psychologist who could try to gain insight into Kandingo’s emotional state.The case is now set to return to court today.