On Sunday May 1, 2011, Moses Dola had awakened before his wife and son at their Umoja Estate house and put on his favourite gospel music.
The loud music woke up his wife and son. Wambui was angry and asked why Dola had interrupted her sleep.
Court records indicate Wambui picked up a pair of scissors and charged at Dola. He struggled to snatch the weapon away.
They were in the bedroom. He overpowered her and they both fell on the bed. Wambui smashed her head on the headboard.
“Sasa ona venye umeniumiza,” Wambui said to her husband before she went silent. Those were her last words.
Wambui, 28, was a rising NTV reporter. Dola was also a journalist and had worked for major media houses, covering courts and crime.
Dola was convicted of manslaughter in November 2018 and jailed for 10 years. Wambui’s parents took their grandson, who was nine-years-old son at the time, and said Dola would never get him back, even after his release.
After almost two years at Industrial Area Prison in Nairobi, a lot has changed, but not Dola’s desire for reconciliation with his in-laws.
He told the Star in a phone interview from prison that he wants to be a better and a productive citizen again. And he wants to be in his son’s life.
“I choose not to talk about the happenings of that fateful day as it still is a traumatising issue and I would not want to evoke emotions of either party involved.
“I have a relationship to forge with my son and in-laws and that’s what is important for now,” Dola said when asked about the day his wife died.
His desire for reconciliation and forgiveness from his wife’s parents is the reason he did not appeal his conviction.
He admits a role in his wife’s death and believes trying to appeal would make his his chances of reconciliation slim. It would have appeared he was trying to distance himself from her death, Dola said.
“I didn’t appeal against the case for simple reasons [that] it was an accidental death that I was involved in and appealing would have meant I am distancing myself and/or admitting blame for the accidental death,” he explained.
“…. it would be insensitive to my in-laws,” he added.
Dola is on a reconciliation mission as part of his healing.
“I only wish I had done so earlier but it was hampered by court conditions set upon granting of bail that required me or anyone close to me, directly or indirectly, not to interfere with, call or intimidate witnesses who were all my in-laws.”
He has filed an application in court to have his time in remand deducted from his prison term.
Image: FILE
At the time of his trial and sentencing, Dola and his family frantically begged to talk with Wambui’s parents – Major (Rtd) John Kabiru Gitahi and Agnes Njoki – in vain.
Gitahi and Njoki flatly rejected pleas from Dola’s family to negotiate.
Suggesting Dola is adapting to life in prison, he said he has repackaged himself and his prison calendar is busy.
He is taking part in activities in pursuit of rehabitation. He is working with fellow inmates against gender-based violence. He is also trying to sensitise couples against domestic squabbling “as even the pettiest of them can have fatal consequences.
“It pains me watching television and seeing each week new cases of violence or homicide related to GBV or relationships,” Dola said.
“It is partially on that note I that formed Rekebisha Trust, an organisation to help victims of violence.”
His talent as a journalist and artiste has increased dramatically during his incarceration.
Dola is a spoken word artiste, talking about GBV, and hopes one day when he is free to host a national concert to celebrate life titled ‘One Life Concert’.
He said while men are stereotyped as the main perpetrators of domestic violence, many of them suffer silently for fear of ridicule.
The ex-journalist is also into music as a budding Ohangla artist, composing tracks and rehearsing them. In his free time, he offers counselling to fellow inmates, having graduated with a diploma at the prison.
“I have also been instrumental in transforming my fellow inmates and that’s the reason I formed Rekebisha Trust, an organisation that aims to nurture and promote talent among inmates and ex-convicts in society,” he said.
Part of his ambition, once he is free, is to start Kenya’s first and only radio station tailor-made for prison inmates in its programmes.