The Court of Appeal has upheld the death sentence of a man convicted of murder, robbery and attempted suicide in a police station.
Michael Kimani Kung'u was convicted of shooting Appolo Jakait dead after attempting to rob him of personal effects on May 6, 2004, at Ongata Rongai shopping centre.
Kung'u was also found guilty of attempting to hang himself with a rope at Ongata Rongai Police Station cells on September 2, 2005. He had denied the charges.
The particulars of the case were that Kung'u stopped Jakait and a police officer on their way home. A struggle ensued and he shot Jakait.
He was arrested and taken to Rongai police cells where he attempted to kill himself a year later.
Duty police officer David Ekono was on that day informed that a suspect had fallen in the cell toilet and on checking, he found Kung'u with a rope tied on his neck from a water pipe. He was rescued and taken to hospital.
Kung'u had in his defence at a Kibera court said he was arrested and charged with an offence he was ignorant of. He denied the charges.
The court established that his testimony was a mere denial and that the prosecution had proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
He was subsequently convicted of the two offences and sentenced to death. Kung'u moved to the High Court, which dismissed his innocence.
Dissatisfied for the second time, he moved to the Court of Appeal seeking to have the conviction quashed and the sentence set aside.
However, judges Hannah Okwengu, Stephen Makhandia and Mohammed Warsame quashed the appeal and upheld the sentence.
“From the foregoing and for the reasons we have strived to give, we find that the appeal lacks merit, and it is accordingly dismissed in its entirety,” the judges ruled.
- mwaniki fm
