Nakuru woman sentenced to 60 years for robbery

A mother of three has been sentenced by a Nakuru court to 60 years in prison for violently robbing a lorry driver and his conductor. Elizabeth Wangui was convicted of the two charges and sentenced to serve 30 years for each count. The sentences will however run concurrently. The court found that the middle aged woman was involved in a plot to lure the two victims, lorry driver James Ng'ang'a and conductor Samuel Kihara, into a remote location in Kampi ya Moto where the two were attacked by a gang of five men armed with an AK 47 rifle.

A man charged alongside Wangui, Peter Warutere, was acquitted for lack of evidence after the victims failed to identify him and the police failed to link him with the crime. The court heard that Wangui approached the two on January 8, 2010 pretending she had goods she wanted transported from Kampi ya Moto to Section58, Nakuru. She then made a down payment of Sh1,000 and on January 9, she met the driver together with a man she identified as her husband. They directed the driver and his conductor to a secluded area of Kampi ya Moto where four men in a saloon car accosted them.

The criminals took control of the lorry and robbed the two off their mobile phones and cash.  The lorry has never been recovered. The presiding magistrate noted that both victims had met and negotiated with the convict at length and were in a position to identify her. Ng'ang'a narrated to the court how they were drugged and robbed by Wangui and her accomplices and left in a bush.