Stepmother acquitted of poisoning kids to death

Kampala. A woman, who is accused of poisoning her two step-daughters, survived jail on Tuesday after court ruled that the children could have died due to poisonous lima beans they ate.
Ms Molly Nayiga was acquitted of murdering Michelle and Vienna Nanyunja on September 4, 2014.
In his verdict, trial judge Yasin Nyanzi said court was put in a fix when analysis from the government analytical laboratory proved that there was no common poison in the samples they removed from bodies of the dead children.
However, Dr Sam Kalungi, who did a postmortem, told court the chilli-red colour of the deceased’s blood and some internal organs was a sign of cyanide poisoning.
The doctor’s finding prompted Justice Nyanzi to do a private search on the lima beans (wild beans), which the deceased’s elder sister, Ms Leticia Namuddu, testified they ate after a mock cooking.
“…research on Wikipedia as conducted by Racheal Taker confirms that compounds of cyanide poison are found in lima beans. Taker states that this is deadly, so you need to cook them for about 10 minutes if you are to eat them,” Justice Nyanzi observed.
He said the online research further warns parents to always teach their children about poisonous plants, mostly those containing cyanide poison, since after damaging the organs, cyanide is cleared rapidly through urine, so tests fail to detect it.
Justice Nyanzi explained more that evidence from Namuddu showed that her siblings were left home alone and exposed to the lima beans while other children had gone to the well.

He observed they might have chewed some raw beans while acting the mock cooking.
He said for that reason, he would acquit Nayiga since all prosecution evidence proved that on the fateful day, she went about her usual chores and drew no suspicion like a person that had committed a crime.