A 65-year-old man sentenced to death for killing his brother and burying his body in his bedroom has moved to Nakuru High Court to appeal against the death sentence.
John Ngechu was sentenced to death in June 2010 after the court found him guilty of first-degree murder, a crime that was committed in 2006 at his house in Naivasha.
In his appeal on Monday, Ngechu admitted in court that he killed his younger brother, Peter Gitau Ngechu, by banging a door against his head and later burying him inside his house.
The two were living together in Ndoroto Village, Naivasha Sub County, after their late mother, Mary Njeri, moved to Eldoret where she was staying with their other brother following the death of their father in 2003.
Ngechu said he had a land disagreement with Gitau which resorted to the killing after he was stopped by Gitau from selling the piece of land.
“I killed my brother because we had a disagreement over land. I was irritated on how he prevented me from selling my land, and anyway, he had smoked bhang, which he used to cultivate in his farm,” said Ngechu.
Ngechu, later on, disposed the land belonging to his brothers but was arrested in August 2006 for creating a disturbance when his late mother confronted him for selling the land.
On February 2007, the mother (who was still in police custody) discovered a grave dug under the bed inside the house with the decomposed body of his son whom they were searching since May in 2006.
Ngechu on Monday told Justice Joel Ngugi that the devil made him commit the crime and that he still regrets and added that his three children need him after his wife left when he was convicted.
Justice Ngugi will make his ruling on September 16.