• Seven witnesses testified against the accused.
• Machachi had told a Kibera court that a binding wire was used to tie both his legs and hands.
Image: FILE
A labourer from Kibera, Nairobi, will spend 20 years in jail for stealing Sh2,500 safari boots and Sh400 cash from a boda-boda rider in 2016.
Justus Omondi was charged with attacking Mogere Machachi on February 19, 2016.
The prosecution proved that Omondi attacked Machachi, beat his left eye with a pistol causing him injuries, and inserted dirty socks in his mouth, pushing it in using a sharp knife. Omondi then violently took off the Safari boots from his legs, his Sh400 and threatened to kill him.
Seven witnesses testified against the accused. Machachi had told a Kibera court that a binding wire was used to tie both his legs and hands. He said he was beaten and left for dead. The convict was in the company of another person.
Boda Boda chairperson Bombolulu Odhiambo told the court that Omondi passed by him and after a while, he received a call from his customer, who told him he had seen a stranger attack his colleague near his house at gunpoint.
Odhiambo alerted his two other colleagues and rushed to the scene. They found blood all over the place, but Machachi was nowhere to be seen. They were informed that a good Samaritan took him to Ushirika Medical Clinic. He was referred to Kenyatta National Hospital.
A doctor confirmed Machachi said Machachi suffered serious injuries on his left eye.
Omondi had denied wrongdoing. He said he only saw some young men point at him then a mob attacked him claiming he was "the thug".
Omondi said AP officers came to his rescue and took him to the Kilimani police station. He said Machachi was his close friend and there was no way he could rob him.
Yesterday, Kibera chief magistrate Joyce Gandani said that according to witness testimonies, Omondi committed the offence.
“Having analysed the witness submission against the accused, I hereby found the identity given to court links him to the crime. I also found his defence weak. I, therefore, send him to 20 years imprisonment. I confirm that this is the best punishment he deserves,” she said.
Gandani said it was not mandatory that Omondi gets life imprisonment. Omondi had requested the court to grant him a lenient sentence, claiming he had stayed in police custody since his arrest in 2016.