Triple arson murder suspect to be kept in psychiatric unit

KAVANGO Region resident Maria Kandingo, who is accused of having killed three people when she set her mother-in-law’s hut on fire some three-and-a-half years ago, heard in the High Court on Monday that she is set to be kept in a psychiatric unit until her trial continues in the last week of June.

Judge Kato van Niekerk remanded Kandingo (28) in custody, but with the added detail that this is to be custody in the Windhoek Central Hospital’s psychiatric unit, when she postponed Kandingo’s trial to June 26 on Monday. During the intervening two weeks until the trial continues, Kandingo is to undergo psychological observation in an attempt to determine her emotional state, and specifically whether she is harbouring suicidal tendencies, the Judge said.State advocate Rolanda Gertze informed Judge Van Niekerk on Friday last week that she had received information that may indicate that Kandingo was planning to commit suicide.She asked the court to withdraw the warning that had seen Kandingo remain free while her trial continues, and to keep Kandingo in custody instead.This application set off a separate hearing on what Kandingo is claimed to have said and whether she had indicated that she would kill herself – something that she denied – until the early hours of Friday evening, before the court still allowed Kandingo to remain free over the weekend.At the end of Friday’s hearing, Judge Van Niekerk also suggested that arrangements should be made for a psychologist to see Kandingo in order to form an opinion about her emotional state.On Monday, Gertze told the court that two clinical psychologists from the Windhoek Central Hospital have indicated to her that they would like about two weeks to observe Kandingo and reach an opinion on her frame of mind, specifically whether she was suicidal.Kandingo pleaded guilty to a charge of arson, and not guilty to three counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder when her trial started on May 26.She admitted that she had set a hut belonging to her mother-in-law, Selma Kambuki Kasivi, on fire at Mururani village in the Kavango Region on December 5 2002, and that Kasivi and two of her grandchildren, aged four and two respectively, died in the ensuing blaze.She offered guilty pleas on three charges of culpable homicide on that score, but the State refused to accept that plea on the three murder counts.Kandingo’s defence counsel, Bradley Basson, told the court when she pleaded that she was denying that she knew that Kasivi and five of her grandchildren were asleep inside the hut at the time that she set it on fire.Kandingo was a battered woman who was being mistreated by her husband, and her act of arson was fuelled by anger and frustration towards her mother-in-law because the latter did not help her in the difficult situation in which she was trapped in her marriage, Basson explained to the court.During the intervening two weeks until the trial continues, Kandingo is to undergo psychological observation in an attempt to determine her emotional state, and specifically whether she is harbouring suicidal tendencies, the Judge said.State advocate Rolanda Gertze informed Judge Van Niekerk on Friday last week that she had received information that may indicate that Kandingo was planning to commit suicide.She asked the court to withdraw the warning that had seen Kandingo remain free while her trial continues, and to keep Kandingo in custody instead.This application set off a separate hearing on what Kandingo is claimed to have said and whether she had indicated that she would kill herself – something that she denied – until the early hours of Friday evening, before the court still allowed Kandingo to remain free over the weekend.At the end of Friday’s hearing, Judge Van Niekerk also suggested that arrangements should be made for a psychologist to see Kandingo in order to form an opinion about her emotional state.On Monday, Gertze told the court that two clinical psychologists from the Windhoek Central Hospital have indicated to her that they would like about two weeks to observe Kandingo and reach an opinion on her frame of mind, specifically whether she was suicidal.Kandingo pleaded guilty to a charge of arson, and not guilty to three counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder when her trial started on May 26.She admitted that she had set a hut belonging to her mother-in-law, Selma Kambuki Kasivi, on fire at Mururani village in the Kavango Region on December 5 2002, and that Kasivi and two of her grandchildren, aged four and two respectively, died in the ensuing blaze.She offered guilty pleas on three charges of culpable homicide on that score, but the State refused to accept that plea on the three murder counts.Kandingo’s defence counsel, Bradley Basson, told the court when she pleaded that she was denying that she knew that Kasivi and five of her grandchildren were asleep inside the hut at the time that she set it on fire.Kandingo was a battered woman who was being mistreated by her husband, and her act of arson was fuelled by anger and frustration towards her mother-in-law because the latter did not help her in the difficult situation in which she was trapped in her marriage, Basson explained to the court.