Wife’s killing was an accident, nurse says

‘I AM very sorry to have killed my wife and it was not my intention to do so.

It happened on 14 September 2007. When I came home, my wife confronted me with bitter words and unusual questions.’With these words Kenyan nurse Kenneth Orina started off telling a magistrate at Grootfontein what happened during the incident that left his wife dead. Her body was later ended with her body being cut up and her body parts being discarded at various places in and around Grootfontein.A statement that Orina made to Magistrate Vicky Nicolaidis at Grootfontein on November 14 2007 became part of the evidence in his trial in the High Court at Oshakati yesterday.In a ruling given at the close of a trial within a trial to determine the admissibility of statements that Orina made after his arrest, Judge Christie Liebenberg ruled that the statement Orina made to the magistrate would be accepted as evidence in his trial. Judge Liebenberg also ruled that the prosecution would be allowed to present evidence about scenes that Orina pointed out to Police officers after his arrest.Evidence about the plea and the detailed version of events that Orina gave during an appearance in the Grootfontein Magistrate’s Court on November 17 2007 was however ruled to be inadmissible. Orina gave that plea in court without legal representation, after he had informed the court on a previous occasion that he wanted to be legally represented and to apply for legal aid.Orina (38) is accused of murdering his wife, fellow nurse Rose Chepkemoi Kiplangat (33), in their flat at the Grootfontein State Hospital Nurses’ Home during the period of September 14 to 17 2007.After the alleged killing, he is alleged to have dismembered her remains and attempted to get rid of her corpse by dumping her body parts at four different scenes in and around Grootfontein, where the body parts were discovered between September 17 and 25 2007.Orina pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and defeating or obstructing the course of justice, or attempting to do so, at the start of his trial on September 21 last year.According to the record of the statement that Orina made before Magistrate Nicolaidis he told her that while sitting in his cell – he had been arrested on October 30 2007 – he decided to confess about what had happened with his wife’s death.’I feel I did this thing, it was not my intention but I did it, so I feel I must report it,’ Orina said.He related that when he returned home on September 14 2007, he found his wife in a strange and threatening mood.She said she was tired of life, asked him what loss there would be if both of them died that day, and told him that she wanted to die that day, Orina said.’She threatened that today she must kill me,’ he told the magistrate.He said he first tried to calm her down and to reason with her, but she became more agitated and started to throw some of their belongings out of their flat.She later locked the door of the flat and Orina sought refuge in their bedroom.He said he heard her making a noise in their kitchen, and then she forced her way into the bedroom.She was armed with a knife, he said.By then, he said, she had threatened him: ‘I can’t leave you alive today.’In the bedroom he tried to grab Kiplangat in an attempt to get the knife out of her hand, but she fought back strongly, again telling him that she could not leave him alive, he said.He said he bit her hand at one point so that she could release the knife, ‘but it was very difficult’.’At one time we struggled for a long time and I managed to pull her hand with the knife and I accidentally cut her on the neck,’ he related.Kiplangat then started bleeding from the wound. After he had realised that she was seriously injured, he tried to cover the wound and to resuscitate her, but saw that she was gasping, he said.’She slowly started changing condition,’ he said. ‘I was shocked and I sat by her side holding her for some hours. I knew that I had now killed my wife innocently. I did not know what to do next.’Orina said he tried twice to go to the Police station to report the incident, ‘but my heart would not allow me to go inside’.’I came back home, mourning in my heart. I sat in the bedroom with her,’ he said.