A Ramsey woman is facing a gross misdemeanor charge after investigators say she knowingly allowed her husband to repeatedly strike their 11-year-old daughter with a belt, then joined him in making the child sing through tears as they laughed.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Anoka County District Court, Dorothy Mwikali Kitetu, 41, has been charged with neglect of a child – knowingly permitting physical abuse. The alleged assault occurred on October 14, 2025, inside the family’s home on Tiger Street Northwest in Ramsey.
Police were alerted the following day after the child’s school counselor contacted a resource officer with concerns. Officers met with the student, who described being struck seven to ten times on her left leg with a folded belt by her father, Cyrus Kitetu Mukuvi, after he became angry that she received a grade of C in choir. The girl said her father told her he would “break her bones.”
Officers documented bruises on the child’s leg consistent with blunt-force trauma. The complaint states that both parents then forced the girl to sing a song from her choir class as she cried, and both laughed at her.
In a post-Miranda interview with police, Dorothy Kitetu confirmed she and her husband made their daughter sing after the assault. The child told investigators she was afraid to go home whenever she didn’t perform well in school and said her mother had also hit her in the past.
Kitetu was arrested and remains in custody under an order of detention signed by District Court Judge Karin McCarthy on October 16, 2025. If convicted, she faces up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $3,000.
The complaint was signed by Ramsey Police Officer Brad Hesse and approved by Assistant Anoka County Attorney David Romaker Jr.
