• Magistrate Kamau said prosecution had proved its case.
• They provided contradictory accounts, exposing their culpability.
Image: CLAUSE MASIKA
A Kibera court has sent four police officers to jail for life after they were found guilty of poaching.
Senior resident magistrate Jane Kamau sentenced corporals Stephen Ngawai, Martin Mwiti, Francis Karanja and constable Peter Kuria Kimungi on Tuesday.
They can gain their freedom by paying Sh20 million fine each.
The officers were based at the AP Security of Government Buildings unit when they were arrested.
They were caught in 2016 with a 5kg elephant tusk worth about Sh500,000 in Nairobi West.
Kimungi was Narc Kenya leader Martha Karua's bodyguard while Karanja was Interior CS Fred Matiang’i’s driver.
Chege and Mwiti were a driver and guard attached to a former Principal Secretary whose identity could not be revealed.
The suspects were in two Toyota Prados, one with a GK plate, when they were pulled over by police after being followed for hours.
Five kilos of ivory were found in one of the vehicles after an extensive police search on site and at Lang'ata police station.
The arrest happened after KWS officers got an intelligence report on their illegal business. They were charged with being in possession of wildlife trophy.
Officers from the Kenya Wildlife Service also impounded one of the vehicles, a Toyota Prado registered KAV 858F.
Dr Ogeto Mwebi from the National Museums of Kenya testified that the tusk found with the accused persons was from the elephant.
He confirmed to court that the tusk which were used as exbits were not fake but belonged to elephant the elephants.
Nicholas Munene, a police officer attached to KWS, testified that he and colleagues got tips that the ivory was being transported to undisclosed location.
In mitigation, the accused requested court for lenient sentences saying they were breadwinners of their families.
In her ruling on Tuesday, magistrate Kamau said the prosecution had proved that the accused committed the offence.
Kamau said the accused gave contradictory information which exposed their culpability.
“I have considered both your mitigation, defense and the prosecution case and therefore send you to life imprisonment or you pay a fine of Sh 20,000,000 each,” she said.
She gave them 14 days to appeal.