- Isaac Oduor was a sergeant of police stationed at Kondele police station.
- He was tried and convicted for the offence of murder of Collins Okoth and was sentenced to death in February 2017.
A former senior police officer who was convicted of manslaughter after a successful appeal against his death sentence has lost a bid to have his seven-year sentence reduced.
Isaac Oduor was a sergeant of police stationed at Kondele police station when killed Collins Okoth who was watching a 2014 World Cup match.
He was tried, convicted and was sentenced to death in February 2017. Dissatisfied with the decision, Oduor appealed and in a decision delivered in 2019, the Court of Appeal quashed the conviction and set aside the death sentence.
In substitution, the court convicted him of the offence of manslaughter and sentenced him to seven years in prison with effect from 2017.
On March 2, 2021, he filed an application for a review of the sentence. The application was supported by his affidavit in which he stated that he had served more than two-thirds of the sentence. He pointed out that he was entitled to a remission of a third of his sentence.
He added that the sentence was manifestly excessive in the circumstances bearing in mind the diligent service he had offered Kenyans while serving the Administration Police Service for 12 years prior to his arrest.
Oduor said he was a first offender and was remorseful.
He submitted his certificates of completion in Emmaus Bible Correspondence Courses, discipleship training in growing and maturing in Christ, the prisoner's journey and diploma in biblical studies at AFCM International Training Centre Africa, which showed he had been rehabilitated and ready to be reintegrated into society.
He averred that he was a family man and his children and siblings have since suffered and disintegrated because of his incarceration.
The state opposed Oduor’s application for a sentence review and contended that the court lacked jurisdiction to revise the orders granted by the Court of Appeal.
It asserted that sections 362 and 364 of the Criminal Procedure Code give it the power of revision but the same can only be exercised over the sentence and/or proceedings of subordinate courts for the purpose of satisfying itself as to the correctness, legality or propriety of any finding, sentence or order recorded or passed, which was not the case with the application.
The prosecution added that the Court of Appeal had reviewed the initial sentence meted out to the applicant, thus the court had no power to revise its decision as was submitted by the state as the Court of Appeal is superior.
The felony of manslaughter attracts a sentence of life imprisonment as provided for under Section 205 of the Penal Code. The Court of Appeal showed a lot of leniency in sentencing the applicant to seven-year imprisonment.
However, Justice Jackeline Kamau on July 29 found that in cases where a convict has only a small part of his sentence to serve, he can be released under the Community Service Order Act. Unfortunately, the High Court can only revise decisions that are delivered by courts below it.
She added that Oduor would, therefore, not have benefitted from that Act as he had been tried by the High Court and his sentence reviewed by the Court of Appeal and because manslaughter does not fall within the categories that a convict can benefit from.
“For the foregoing reasons, the upshot of this court’s decision is that the application was not merited and the same be and is hereby dismissed. The conviction and sentence meted out to him by the Court of Appeal are hereby left undisturbed,” the judge ruled.
It was the prosecution’s case that on June 14, 2014, Odour and his colleagues Mwamburi and Mwangi were on night patrol in the Kondele area.
They were armed with firearms. The trio found youths watching a World Cup match at a video shop.
The police wanted the youths to go home because of the insecurity in the area and Oduor unplugged the television set thus switching it off. This led to a confrontation between Oduor and the youths during which Okoth was fatally shot.
-Edited by SKanyara