A WINDHOEK resident convicted of murder in connection with a stabbing which ended the life of her former boyfriend in mid-2008 is due to be sentenced in the Windhoek Regional Court on March 12.

"Really it wasn't my intention to cause this person's death," the convicted Fiona Kinda (31) told Magistrate Dinnah Usiku yesterday, when she testified in mitigation of the sentence that is to be imposed on her when her trial ends.

Kinda added that although her former boyfriend, Charles Henry Baisako (30), used to assault her while they were involved in a relationship, she endured this abuse for the sake of their child. Kinda said she continued her relationship with Baisako for some nine years because she had grown up without a father, and she did not want their daughter to experience the same.

Baisako died after Kinda had stabbed him in the chest with a knife at her house in Katutura in Windhoek on the evening of June 15 2008.

Kinda claimed she had just wanted to scare off Baisako when she made a stabbing motion at him. However, she stabbed him in the chest with such force that one of his ribs was fractured. He was stabbed in the heart.

During Kinda's trial the court heard that Baisako had been restrained by other people at the house, and that a security gate was separating him and Kinda, when she stabbed him through one of the openings of the gate.

Magistrate Usiku found Kinda guilty of murder on Friday last week.

The court had also heard that a protection order in terms of the Combating of Domestic Violence Act was forbidding Baisako from visiting Kinda's house when he nevertheless arrived at the house on the evening in question.

An altercation ensued between him and Kinda, and he again assaulted her by slapping her after she had grabbed his cellphone from him and broken the instrument.

Kinda told the court yesterday that she had reported Baisako to the Police over alleged incidents of domestic violence on five occasions. On the last occasion, which was shortly before the incident, he was charged and released on bail, she said.

Their relationship was soured by jealousy and aggressiveness on Baisako's part, she claimed.

Kinda's defence lawyer, Henrico von Wielligh, argued that, although Kinda had been convicted of a serious offence, a long term of imprisonment would not be a fitting sentence. He asked the court to consider a suspended sentence or a term of imprisonment of which the biggest part is suspended.

Public Prosecutor Carol-Ann Esterhuizen emphasised the seriousness of the murder and the problem of domestic violence in Namibia.

She said Kinda should have thought of what would happen to her child before she committed the offence.

A suspended sentence would not be appropriate, Esterhuizen argued, and suggested that the court should consider a term of 20 years' imprisonment.

Kinda is remaining in custody after being convicted.