Werner Menges
9 May 2008
A HOTEL chef who found himself the centre of gossip over the paternity of a child his wife was pregnant with resorted to one of the tools of his trade, a formidable kitchen knife, to deal with that matter - with a deadly result, it emerged in the High Court in Windhoek yesterday.
"It was anger that caused me to do that," Vaino Iihuhwa told Acting Judge John Manyarara when he pleaded guilty to charges of murder and attempted murder at the start of his trial.
Iihuhwa, a 37-year-old father of six children who has worked as a chef for the past 18 years, admitted that he killed a 29-year-old woman, Elizabeth Queen Itembu, in Windhoek's Havana area on October 3 2004.
Pleading guilty to a count of attempted murder, he further admitted that he had also stabbed another woman, Linea Uusiku, just after he inflicting a set of fatal stab wounds on Itembu.
Iihuhwa told Acting Judge Manyarara that Itembu and Uusiku were claiming that his wife was pregnant with a child that had not been fathered by him.
He said a meeting was held over this and the issue was resolved, with everyone forgiving each other and leaving the matter there.
Then, however, Itembu again phoned him on the day of the incident, saying she wanted to talk to him.
He drove to her house, taking a kitchen knife with him, he related.
At her house, she told him that he was "behaving like a person who had been f***ed", and that was what made his anger erupt, Iihuhwa said.
He said when Itembu made that remark to him, "this anger caught me", and he pushed her down into a chair.
When she got up from the chair, she saw the knife he had with him and turned around, and that was when he stabbed her in the back, he said.
He stabbed her "about two to three times", Iihuhwa said.
Itembu then ran out of the house, and Uusiku came and hit him from behind on his back.
He turned around and stabbed her also, Iihuhwa said.
He got into his car and drove to the Wanaheda Police Station after that to report the incident and ask the Police to summon medical help for the two women, Iihuhwa told the court.
Itembu died as a result of blood loss, according to the autopsy report.
"I admit that I have done wrong.
Though it was the anger that drove me to do it," Iihuhwa told the court.
He said he was working as a chef at Windhoek's Safari Hotel at the time.
He eventually worked as a chef at the hotel for 16 years, and had been working as a chef at Midgard Lodge northeast of Windhoek for the past two years.
He is married, has six children, and is responsible for paying the school fees of his three children who are attending school, he said.
"I'm begging the court to forgive me," Iihuhwa told Acting Judge Manyarara.
He said he had also met with Itembu's family after the incident, and had paid compensation of N$7 200 that he was ordered to fork out to them.
Acting Judge Manyarara is set to sentence Iihuhwa today.
Iihuhwa is standing trial without legal representation.
Two lawyers who previously represented him withdrew from the case and the Directorate of Legal Aid refused to instruct another lawyer to act on his behalf.
State advocate Sandra Miller is prosecuting.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The Namibian. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
