Bar worker who killed lover in a Nairobi slum pub jailed for 15 years

A bar attendant who had brutally murdered her lover and staged his death to appear as a suicide has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.

The High Court found Beth Rose Karona Miano alias Muthoni, guilty of killing 44 year-old Manson David Ngugi Mwaura while drinking, on October 10, 2019, at Matopeni area in Githogoro slums, Nairobi County.

In a judgment delivered at the Milimani Law Courts yesterday, Justice Kanyi Kimondo said that the prosecution had proven the case against Karona beyond reasonable doubt and had further proven that the cause of Ngugi’s death was head injuries due to blunt force trauma and not hanging at the pub’s roof as the accused had alleged.

The prosecution told the court that the killing occurred inside a small, one-roomed bar measuring approximately 15 by 10 feet, where the deceased’s body was found hanging under suspicious circumstances.

“The accused, acting in concert with others not before the court, murdered Ngugi and therefore the offence was grave, warranting a custodial sentence,” the judge stated.

The court heard that after killing the deceased, the accused and her accomplices went to great lengths to conceal the crime. 

“They then staged the scene to look like the deceased had committed suicide by hnging,” Justice Kimondo said.

While sentencing her, the court rejected the defence’s claim that the case was founded on suspicion and lacked direct evidence. This was after her lawyer argued that Karona was not at the scene when the crime occurred and that investigators had failed to establish her involvement.

“There is no tangible and concrete evidence to remove the issues from the realm of suspicion into that of proven facts,” the defence argued.

However, the court ruled that the totality of the evidence placed Karona at the centre of the crime. 

It found that she had served alcoholic drinks to the deceased and two other men minutes before he was killed. The judge said he relied heavily on the testimony of Police Constable Kevin Bwire, one of the first officers to respond to the scene.

When PC Bwire arrived, he doubted that the death was a suicide. 

“He found the deceased’s body hanging by a lesso, but the feet were supported by a plastic chair and not hanging freely,” the Judge noted, adding that the setup was inconsistent with self-hanging.

Further inquiries revealed that the accused had been seen in a neighbouring bar shortly before the body was discovered. When she was brought back to the scene, she told police that she had been serving three men, including the deceased, and that when she returned with their drinks, she found Ngugi hanging and the other two men had vanished. 

However, the court found her explanation riddled with gaps, particularly her failure to account for the disappearance of the alleged companions.

Evidence from Elizabeth Njeri, the bar owner, further undermined the defence. Njeri testified that  Karona was her only employee and had collected the keys to the bar around noon on the day of the incident.

She also confirmed that the deceased was a regular customer and that when she later contacted Karona, she was heavily intoxicated and unable to explain what had happened. After evaluating all the evidence, the court concluded that the murder had been deliberately executed and the scene manipulated to mislead the investigators.

In her mitigation, Karona, now 49-years-old, said she was a first-time offender and a mother of five adult children aged between 18 and 27. 

“She seeks forgiveness for her actions. In short, it is a plea for mercy,” the judge noted while summarising her mitigation.

However, the court ruled that her personal circumstances could not outweigh the seriousness of the crime. “I have also considered the pre-sentencing report dated September 12, 2025… She does not recommend a non-custodial sentence,” Justice Kimondo said, referring to a report prepared by Probation Officer Esther Mwalili.

The deceased, Ngugi, was described as a mason who eked out a living through casual jobs in Nairobi. 

His parents, peasant farmers from Murang’a County, were left devastated by his death.

“The family is yet to get closure from the horrifying and unforgettable image of his body hanging from a pub’s roof-top,” the court heard.

While the family acknowledged that Ngugi struggled with alcoholism, they rejected any justification for his killing. 

“They concede that the deceased was a drunkard but that did not warrant such a cruel death,” Justice Kimondo stated. In determining the sentence, the court emphasised that the punishment must reflect both the offender’s culpability and the severity of the offence. The sentence will be computed from the date of her first arrest, October 10, 2019.