Ms Rosemeg Wambita is in pain. Her 39-year-old son Quincy Timberlake is languishing in an Australian jail following the killing of his three-year-old son Sinclair in 2014.
But what has added her pain is Monday’s confession by her daughter-in-law Esther Arunga.
Ms Arunga pleaded guilty to being an accessory to murder. She admitted to lying to police in a bid to shield her husband from punishment.
But Ms Wambita wants to hear nothing of that.
In an interview at her rented house in Mbeme, Kisumu County on Monday, she vehemently denied Ms Arunga’s claims while defending her son.
The elderly woman covered her face as she struggled to hold back tears.
TESTIMONY
“That is a lie. I don’t understand what she means since she is the one who said that their son did not die at the hands of her husband,” Ms Wambita said.
“Where was she all this time? This is peculiar to me (sic). It is a lie. I don’t understand it.”
Sitting on a plastic stool in her one-bedroom house, Ms Wambita — who described Timberlake as a God-fearing child — said she does not believe her daughter-in-law’s testimony.
“When it comes to death, people can change. In this case, I say no,” she said.
“If my son is a murderer, why did she accept to live with a killer?”
Ms Wambita said she last met her son in Nairobi in 2009 “but I’ve not found an opportunity to talk to him since. In vain have I tried to reach out to well-wishers and my MP to help me travel to Australia for I want to know the truth,” she said as she wiped tears.
“I leave everything to God but I believe my son will prove his innocence to his accusers.”
TRAUMA
A postmortem report showed Sinclair died from blunt force trauma to his abdomen at the family home in Kallangur, Australia.
The Australian Associated Press said Crown Prosecutor Danny Boyle told the court that Ms Arunga had called emergency services and told them the boy fell down the stairs.
Justice Martin Burns will sentence Ms Arunga on Thursday.